ST.
JEROME

AGAINST
JOVINIANUS
BOOK I
(ON MARRIAGE AND VIRGINITY)

AGAINST JOVINIANUS

Book I.

Jovinianus,
concerning whom we know little more than is to be found in the two following
books,
had published
at Rome a Latin treatise containing all,
or part of the opinions here controverted, viz. (I) "That a virgin is
no better as such than a wife in the sight of God. (2) Abstinence is no better
than a thankful partaking of food. (3) A person baptized with the Spirit as
well as with water cannot sin. (4) All sins are equal. (5) There is but one
grade of punishment and one of reward in the future state." In addition
to this he held the birth of our Lord to have been by a "true parturition," and
was thus at issue with the orthodoxy of the time, according to which the infant
Jesus passed through the walls of the womb as His Resurrection body afterwards
did out of the tomb or through the closed doors. Pammachius, Jerome's friend,
brought Jovinian's book under the notice of Siricius, bishop of Rome, and it
was shortly afterwards condemned in synods at that city and at Milan (about
A.D. 390). He subsequently sent Jovinian's books to Jerome, who answered them
in the present treatise in the year 393. Nothing more is known of Jovinian,
but it has been conjectured from Jerome's remark in the treatise against Vigilantius,
where Jovinian is said to have "amidst pheasants and pork rather belched
out than breathed out his life," and by a kind of transmigration to have
transmitted his opinions into Vigilantius, that he had died before 409, the
date of that work.

The first book is wholly on the first proposition of Jovinianus, that relating
to marriage and virginity. The first three chapters are introductory. The rest
may be divided into three parts:

1 (ch. 4-13). An exposition, in Jerome's sense, of St. Paul's teaching in
I Cor. vii.

2 (ch. 14-39). A statement of the teaching which Jerome derives from the various
books of both the Old and the New Testaments.

3. A denunciation of Jovinianus (c. 40), and the praises of virginity and
of jingle marriages derived from examples in the heathen world.

The treatise gives a remarkable specimen of Jerome's system of interpreting
Scripture, and also of the methods by which asceticism was introduced into
the Church, and marriage brought into disesteem.

1. Very few days have elapsed since the holy brethren of Rome sent to me the
treatises of a certain Jovinian with the request that I would reply to the
follies contained in them, and would crush with evangelical and apostolic vigour
the[1] Epicurus of Christianity. I read but could not in the least comprehend
them. I began therefore to give them closer attention, and to thoroughly sift
not only words and sentences, but almost every single syllable; for I wished
first to ascertain his meaning, and then to approve, or refute what he had
said. But the style is so barbarous, and the language so vile and such a heap
of blunders, that I could neither understand what he was talking about, nor
by what arguments he was trying to prove his points. At one moment he is all
bombast, at another he grovels: from time to time he lifts himself up, and
then like a wounded snake finds his own effort too much for him. Not satisfied
with the language of men, he attempts something loftier.

[1] "The
mountains labour; a poor mouse is born."

[2] "That
he's gone mad ev'n mad Orestes swears."

Moreover
he involves everything in such inextricable confusion that the saying of[3]
Plautus might be applied
to him :--" This is what none but a Sibyl
will ever read."

To understand him we must be prophets. We read Apollo's[4] raving prophetesses.
We remember, too, what[5] Virgil says of senseless noise.[1] Heraclitus, also,
surnamed the Obscure, the philosophers find hard to understand even with their
utmost toil. But what are they compared with our riddle-maker, whose books
are much more difficult to comprehend than to refute ? Although (we must confess)
the task of refuting them is no easy one. For how can you overcome a man when
you are quite in the dark as to his meaning ? But, not to be tedious to my
reader, the introduction to his second book, of which he has discharged himself
like a sot after a night's debauch, will show the character of his eloquence,
and through what bright flowers of rhetoric he takes his stately course.

2. "I
respond to your invitation, not that I may go through life with a high reputation,
but
may live free
from idle rumour. I beseech the ground,
the young shoots of our plantations, the plants and trees of tenderness snatched
from the whirlpool of vice, to grant me audience and the support of many listeners.
We know that the Church through hope, faith, charity, is inaccessible and impregnable.
In it no one is immature: all are apt to learn: none can force a way into it
by violence, or deceive it by craft."

3. What,
I ask, is the meaning of these portentous words and of this grotesque description?
Would
you not
think he was in a feverish dream, or that he was
seized with madness and ought to be put into the strait jacket which Hippocrates
prescribed? However often I read him, even till my heart sinks within me, I
am still in uncertainty of his meaning.[2] Everything starts from, everything
depends upon, something else. It is impossible to make out any connection;
and, excepting the proofs from Scripture which he has not dared to exchange
for his own lovely flowers of rhetoric, his words suit all matter equally well,
because they suit no matter at all. This circumstance led me shrewdly to suspect
that his object in proclaiming the excellence of marriage was only to disparage
virginity. For when the less is put upon a level with the greater, the lower
profits by comparison, but the higher suffers wrong. For ourselves, we do not
follow the views of [3] Marcion and Manichaeus, and disparage marriage; nor,
deceived by the error of[4] Tatian, the leader of the Encratites, do we think
all intercourse impure; he condemns and rejects not only marriage but also
food which God created for the use of man. We know that in a great house, there
are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware.
And that upon the foundation, Christ, which Paul the master-builder laid, some
build gold, silver, precious stones: others, on the contrary, hay, wood, straw.
We are not ignorant of the words,[1] " Marriage is honourable among all,
and the bed undefiled." We have read God's first command,[2] "Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth "; but while we honour
marriage we prefer virginity which is the offspring of marriage. Will silver
cease to be silver, if gold is more precious than silver? Or is despite done
to tree and corn, if we prefer the fruit to root and foliage, or the grain
to stalk and ear? Virginity is to marriage what fruit is to the tree, or grain
to the straw. Although the hundred-fold, the sixty-fold, and the thirty-fold
spring from one earth and from one sowing, yet there is a great difference
in respect of number. The thirty-fold has reference to marriage. The very way
the[3] fingers are combined--see how they seem to embrace, tenderly kiss, and
pledge their troth either to other--is a picture of husband and wife. The sixty-fold
applies to widows, because they are placed in a position of difficulty and
distress. Hence the upper finger signifies their depression, and the greater
the difficulty in resisting the allurements of pleasure once experienced, the
greater the reward. Moreover (give good heed, my reader), to denote a hundred,
the right hand is used instead of the left: a circle is made with the same
fingers which on the left hand represented widowhood, and thus the crown of
virginity is expressed. In saying this I have followed my own impatient spirit
rather than the course of the argument. For I had scarcely left harbour, and
had barely hoisted sail, when a swelling tide of words suddenly swept me into
the depths of the discussion. I must stay my course, and take in canvas for
a little while; nor will I indulge my sword, anxious as it is to strike a blow
for virginity. The farther back the catapult is drawn, the greater the force
of the missile. To linger is not to lose, if by lingering victory is better
assured. I will briefly set forth our adversary's views, and will drag them
out from his books like snakes from the holes where they hide, and will separate
the venomous head from the writhing body. What is baneful shall be discovered,
that, when we have the power, it may be crushed.

He says
that "virgins,
widows, and married women, who have been once passed through the layer of
Christ,
if they are on a par in other respects,
are of equal merit."

He endeavours
to show that "they
who with full assurance of faith have been born again in baptism, cannot
be overthrown by the devil."

His third
point is "that
there is no difference between abstinence from food, and its reception with
thanksgiving."

The fourth
and last is "that
there is one reward in the kingdom of heaven for all who have kept their
baptismal vow."

4. This is the hissing of the old serpent; by counsel such as this the dragon
drove man from Paradise. For he promised that if they would prefer fulness
to fasting they should be immortal, as though it were an impossibility for
them to fall; and while he promises they shall be as Gods, he drives them from
Paradise, with the result that they who, while naked and unhampered, and as
virgins unspotted enjoyed the fellowship of the Lord were cast down into the
vale of tears, and sewed skins together to clothe themselves withal. But, not
to detain the reader any longer, I will keep to the division given above and
taking his propositions one by one will rely chiefly on the evidence of Scripture
to refute them, for fear he may chatter and complain that he was overcome by
rhetorical skill rather than by force of truth. If I succeed in this and with
the aid of a cloud of witnesses from both Testaments prove too strong for him,
I will then accept his challenge, and adduce illustrations from secular literature.
I will show that even among philosophers and distinguished statesmen, the virtuous
are wont to be preferred by all to the voluptuous, that is to say men like[1]
Pythagoras,[2] Plato and[3] Aristides, to[4] Aristippus,[5] Epicurus and [1]
Alcibiades. I entreat virgins of both sexes and all such as are continent,
the married also and the twice married, to assist my efforts with their prayers.
Jovinian is the common enemy For he who maintains all to be of equal merit,
does no less injury to virginity in comparing it with marriage than he does
to marriage, when he allows it to be lawful, but to the same extent as second
and third marriages. But to digamists and trigamists also he does wrong, for
he places on a level with them whoremongers and the most licentious persons
as soon as they have repented; but perhaps those who have been married twice
or thrice ought not to complain, for the same whoremonger if penitent is made
equal in the kingdom of heaven even to virgins. I will therefore explain more
clearly and in proper sequence the arguments he employs and the illustrations
he adduces respecting marriage, and will treat them in the order in which he
states them. And I beg the reader not to be disturbed if he is compelled to
read Jovinian's nauseating trash. He will all the more gladly drink Christ's
antidote after the devil's poisonous concoction. Listen with patience, ye virgins;
listen, I pray you, to the voice of the most voluptuous of preachers; nay rather
close your ears, as you would to the Syren's fabled songs, and pass on. For
a little while endure the wrongs you suffer: think you are crucified with Christ,
and are listening to the blasphemies of the Pharisees.

5. First
of all, he says, God declares that[2] " therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall
be one flesh." And lest we should say that this is a quotation from the
Old Testament, he asserts that it has been[3] confirmed by the Lord in the
Gospel--" What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder ":
and he immediately adds,[4] "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth." He next repeats the names of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel,
Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, and tells us that they all had wives
and in accordance with the will of God begot sons, as though there could be
any table of descent or any history of mankind without wives and children. "There," says
he, "is Enoch, who walked with God and was carried up to heaven. There
is Noah, the only person who, except his wife, and his sons and their wives,
was saved at the deluge, although there must have been many persons not of
marriageable age, and therefore presumably virgins. Again, after the deluge,
when the human race started as it were anew, men and women were paired together
and a fresh blessing was pronounced on procreation, [1]"Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth." Moreover, free permission was given
to eat flesh,[2] "Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you;
as the green herb have I given you all." He then flies off to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, of whom the first had three wives, the second one, the third
four, Leah, Rachel, Billah, and Zilpah, and he declares that Abraham by his
faith merited the blessing which he received in begetting his son. Sarah, typifying
the Church, when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women, exchanged
the curse of barrenness for the blessing of child-bearing. We are informed
that Rebekah went like a prophet to inquire of the Lord, and was told,[3] "Two
nations and two peoples are in thy womb." that Jacob served for his wife,
and that when Rachel, thinking it was in the power of her husband to give her
children, said,[4] "Give me children, or else I die," he replied,[5] "Am
I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ?" so
well aware was he that the fruit of marriage cometh from the Lord and not from
the husband. We next learn that Joseph, a holy man of spotless chastity, and
all the patriarchs, had wives, and that God blessed them all alike through
the lips of Moses. Judah also and Thamar are brought upon the scene, and he
censures Onan, slain by the Lord, because he, grudging to raise up seed to
his brother, marred the marriage rite. He refers to Moses and the leprosy of
Miriam, who, because she chided her brother on account of his wife, was stricken
by the avenging hand of God. He praises Samson, I may even say extravagantly
panegyrizes the uxorious Nazarite. Deborah also and Barak are mentioned, because,
although they had not the benefit of virginity, they were victorious over the
iron chariots of Sisera and Jabin. He brings forward Jael, the wife of Heber
the Kenite, and extols her for arming herself with the[6] stake. He says there
was no difference between Jephthah and his virgin daughter, who was sacrificed
to the Lord: nay, of the two, he prefers the faith of the father to that of
the daughter who met death with grief and tears. He then comes to Samuel, another
Nazarite of the Lord, who from infancy was brought up in the tabernacle and
was clad in a linen ephod, or, as the words are rendered, in listen vestments:
he, too, we are told, begot sons without a stain upon his priestly purity.
He places Boaz and his wife Ruth side by side in his repository, and traces
the descent of Jesse and David from them. He then points out how David himself,
for the price of two hundred foreskins and at the peril of his life, was bedded
with the king's daughter. What shall I say of Solomon, whom he includes in
the list of husbands, and represents as a type of the Saviour, maintaining
that of him it was written,[1] "Give the king thy judgments, O God, and
thy righteousness unto the king's son "? And[2] "To him shall be
given of the gold of Sheba, and men shall pray for him continually." Then
all at once he makes a jump to Elijah and Elisha, and tells us as a great secret
that the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha. Why he mentioned this he does not
say. It can hardly be that he thinks Elijah and Elisha, like the rest, were
married men. The next step is to Hezekiah, upon whose praises he dwells, and
yet (I wonder why) forgets to mention that he said,[3] " Henceforth I
will beget children." He relates that Josiah, a righteous man, in whose
time the book of Deuteronomy was found in the temple, was instructed by Huldah,
wife of Shallum. Daniel also and the three youths are classed by him with the
married. Suddenly he betakes himself to the Gospel, and adduces Zachariah and
Elizabeth, Peter and his father-in-law, and the rest of the Apostles. His inference
is thus expressed: "If they idly urge in defence of themselves the plea
that the world in its early stage needed to be replenished, let them listen
to the words of Paul,[4] ' I desire therefore that the younger widows marry,
bear children.' And[5] 'Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled.' And[6]
' A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband
be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.' And[7]
Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression:
but she shall be saved through the child-bearing, if they continue in faith
and love and sanctification with sobriety.' Surely we shall hear no more of
the famous Apostolic utterance,[8] 'And they who have wives as though they
had them not.' It can hardly be that you will say the reason why he wished
them to be married was that some widows had already turned back after Satan:
as though virgins never fell and their fall was not more ruinous. All this
makes it clear that in forbidding to marry, and to eat food which God created
for use, you have consciences seared as with a hot iron, and are followers
of the Manichaeans." Then comes much more which it would be unprofitable
to discuss. At last he dashes into rhetoric and apostrophizes virginity thus: "I
do you no wrong, Virgin: you have chosen a life of chastity on account of the
present distress: you determined on the course in order to be holy in body
and spirit: be not proud: you and your married sisters are members of the same
Church."

6. I have perhaps explained his position at too great a length, and become
tedious to my reader; but I thought it best to draw up in full array against
myself all his efforts, and to muster all the forces of the enemy with their
squadrons and generals, lest after an early victory there should spring up
a series of other engagements. I will not therefore do battle with single foes,
nor will I be satisfied with skirmishes in which I meet small detachments of
my opponents. The battle must be fought with the whole army of the enemy, and
the disorderly rabble, fighting more like brigands than soldiers, must be repulsed
by the skill and method of regular warfare. In the front rank I will set the
Apostle Paul, and, since he is the bravest of generals, will arm him with his
own weapons, that is to say, his own statements. For the Corinthians asked
many questions about this matter, and the doctor of the Gentiles and master
of the Church gave full replies. What he decreed we may regard as the law of
Christ speaking in him. At the same time, when we begin to refute the several
arguments, I trust the reader will give me his attention even before the Apostle
speaks, and will not, in his eagerness to discuss the most weighty points,
neglect the premises, and rush at once to the conclusion.

7. Among
other things the Corinthians asked in their letter whether after embracing
the faith of
Christ they ought
to be unmarried, and for the sake
of continence put away their wives, and whether believing virgins were at liberty
to marry. And again, supposing that one of two Gentiles believed on Christ,
whether the one that believed should leave the one that believed not? And in
case it were allowable to take wives, would the Apostle direct that only Christian
wives, or Gentiles also, should be taken? Let us then consider Paul's replies
to these inquiries.[1] "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote: It
is good for a man not to touch a woman. But, because of fornications, let each
man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband
render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband: And likewise also
the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not
one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves
unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of
your incontinency. But this I say by way of permission not of commandment.
Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own
gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that. But I say to
the Unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I. But
if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than
to burn." Let us turn back to the chief point of the evidence: "It
is good," he says, "for a man not to touch a woman." If it is
good not to touch a woman, it is bad to touch one: for there is no opposite
to goodness but badness. But if it be bad and the evil is pardoned, the reason
for the concession is to prevent worse evil. But surely a thing which is only
allowed because there may be something worse has only a slight degree of goodness.
He would never have added "let each man have his own wife," unless
he had previously used the words "but, because of fornications." Do
away with fornication, and he will not say "let each man have his own
wife." Just as though one were to lay it down: "It is good to feed
on wheaten bread, and to eat the finest wheat flour," and yet to prevent
a person pressed by hunger from devouring cow-dung, I may allow, him to eat
barley. Does it follow that the wheat will not have its peculiar purity, because
such an one prefers barley to excrement? That is naturally good which does
not admit of comparison with what is bad, and is not eclipsed because something
else is preferred. At the same time we must notice the Apostle's prudence.
He did not say, it is good not to have a wife: but, it is good not to touch
a woman: as though there were danger even in the touch: as though he who touched
her, would not escape from her who "hunteth for the precious life," who
causeth the young man's understanding to fly away.[1] " Can a man take
fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon hot
coals. and his feet not be scorched?" As then he who touches fire is instantly
burned, so by the mere touch the peculiar nature of man and woman is perceived,
and the difference of sex is understood, Heathen fables relate how[2] Mithras
and[3] Ericthonius were begotten of the soil, in stone or earth, by raging
lust. Hence it was that our Joseph, because the Egyptian woman wished to touch
him, fled from her hands, and, as if he had been bitten by a mad dog and feared
the spreading poison, threw away the cloak which she had touched. "But,
because of fornications let each man have his own wife, and let each woman
have her own husband." He did not say, because of fornication let each
man marry a wife: otherwise by this excuse he would have thrown the reins to
lust, and whenever a man's wife died, he would have to marry another to prevent
fornication, but "have his own wife." Let him he says have and use
his own wife, whom he had before he became a believer, and whom it would have
been good not to touch, and, when once he became a follower of Christ, to know
only as a sister, not as a wife unless fornication should make it excusable
to touch her. "The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband:
and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife." The
whole question here concerns those who are married men. Is it lawful for them
to do what our Lord forbade in the Gospel, and to put away their wives? Whence
it is that the Apostle says, " It is good for a man not to touch a woman." But
inasmuch as he who is once married has no power to abstain except by mutual
consent, and may not reject an unoffending partner, let the husband render
unto the wife her due. He bound himself voluntarily that he might be under
compulsion to render it. "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by
consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer." What,
I pray you, is the quality of that good thing which hinders prayer? which does
not allow the body of Christ to be received ? So long as I do the husband's
part, I fail in continency. The same Apostle in another place commands us to
pray always. If we are to pray always, it follows that we must never be in
the bondage of wedlock, for as often as I render my wife her due, I cannot
pray. The Apostle Peter had experience of the bonds of marriage. See how he
fashions the Church, and what lesson he teaches Christians:[1] "Ye husbands
in like manner dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honour
unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being also joint-heirs of the
grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered." Observe
that, as S. Paul before, because in both cases the spirit is the same, so S.
Peter now, says that prayers are hindered by the performance of marriage duty.
When he says "likewise," he challenges the husbands to imitate their
wives, because he has already given them commandment:[2] " beholding your
chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be the outward
adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting
on apparel: but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible
apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." You
see what kind of wedlock he enjoins. Husbands and wives are to dwell together
according to knowledge, so that they may know what God wishes and desires,
and give honour to the weak vessel, woman. If we abstain from intercourse,
we give honour to our wives: if we do not abstain, it is clear that insult
is the opposite of honour. He also tells the wives to let their husbands "see
their chaste behaviour, and the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible
apparel of a meek and quiet spirit." Words truly worthy of an apostle,
and of Christ's rock! He lays down the law for husbands and wives, condemns
outward ornament, while he praises continence, which is the ornament of the
inner man, as seen in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit.
In effect he says this: Since your outer man is corrupt, and you have ceased
to possess the blessing of incorruption characteristic of virgins, at least
imitate the incorruption of the spirit by subsequent abstinence, and what you
cannot show in the body exhibit in the mind. For these are the riches, and
these the ornaments of your union, which Christ seeks.

8. The
words which follow, "that ye may give yourselves unto prayer,
and may be together again," might lead one to suppose that the Apostle
was expressing a wish and not making a concession because of the danger of
a greater fall. He therefore at once adds, "lest Satan tempt you for your
incontinency." It is a fine permission which is conveyed in the words "be
together again." What it was that he blushed to call by its own name,
and thought only better than a temptation of Satan and the effect of incontinence,
we take trouble to discuss as if it were obscure, although he has explained
his meaning by saying, "this I say by way of permission, not by way of
command." And do we still hesitate to speak of marriage as a concession
to weakness, not a thing commanded, as though second and third marriages were
not allowed on the same ground, as though the doors of the Church were not
opened by repentance even to fornicators, and what is more, to the incestuous?
Take the case of the man who outraged his step-mother. Does not the Apostle,
after delivering him, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh that his spirit might be saved, in the second
Epistle take the offender back and strive to prevent a brother from being swallowed
up by overmuch grief. The Apostle's wish is one thing, his pardon another.
If a wish be expressed, it confers a right; if a thing is only called pardonable,
we are wrong in using it. If you wish to know the Apostle's real mind you must
take in what follows: "but I would that all men were as I am." Happy
is the man who is like Paul! Fortunate is he who attends to the Apostle's command,
not to his concession. This, says he, I wish, this I desire that ye be imitators
of me, as I also am of Christ, who was a Virgin born of a Virgin, uncorrupt
of her who was uncorrupt. We, because we are men, cannot imitate our Lord's
nativity; but we may at least imitate His life. The former was the blessed
prerogative of divinity, the latter belongs to our human condition and is part
of human effort. I would that all men were like me, that while they are like
me, they may also become like Christ, to whom I am like. For[1] "he that
believeth in Christ ought himself also to walk even as He walked."[2] " Howbeit
each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after
that." What I wish, he says, is clear. But since in the Church there is
a diversity of gifts, I acquiesce in marriage, lest I should seem to condemn
nature. At the same time consider, that the gift of virginity is one, that
of marriage, another. For were the reward the same for the married and for
virgins, he would never after enjoining continence have said:[3] " Each
man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that." Where
there is a distinction in one particular, there is a diversity also in other
points. I grant that even marriage is a gift of God, but between gift and gift
there is great diversity. In fact the Apostle himself speaking of the same
person who had repented of his incestuous conduct, says:[3] " so that
contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, and to whom ye forgive
anything, I forgive also." And that we might not think a man's gift contemptible,
he added,[4] "for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything,
for your sakes have I forgiven it, in the presence of Christ." There is
diversity in the gifts of Christ. Hence it is that by way of type Joseph has
a coat of many colours. And in the forty-fifth psalm we read,[5] " at
thy right hand doth Stand the queen in a vesture of gold wrought about with
divers colours." And the Apostle Peter says,[6] " as heirs together
of the manifold grace of God," where the more expressive Greek word <greek>poikilhs</greek>,
i.e., varied, is used.

9. Then
come the words[7] "But I say to the unmarried and to widows,
it is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they have not continency,
let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." Having conceded
to married persons the enjoyment of wedlock and pointed out his own wishes,
he passes on to the unmarried and to widows, sets before them his own practice
for imitation, and calls them happy if they so abide. "But if they have
not continency, let them marry," just as he said before "But because
of fornications," and "Lest Satan tempt you, because of your incontinency." And
he gives a reason for saying "If they have not continency, let them marry," viz. "It
is better to marry than to burn." The reason why it is better to marry
is that it is worse to burn. Let burning lust be absent, and he will not say
it is better to marry. The word better always implies a comparison with something
worse, not a thing absolutely good and incapable of comparison. It is as though
he said, it is better to have one eye than neither, it is better to stand on
one foot and to support the rest of the body with a stick, than to crawl with
broken legs. What do you say, Apostle? I do not believe you when you say " Though
I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowledge." As humility is the source
of the sayings "For I am not worthy to be called an Apostle," and "To
me who am the least of the Apostles," and "As to one born out of
due time," so here also we have an utterance of humility. You know the
meaning of language, or you would not quote Epimenides,[2] Menander, and[3]
Aratus. When you are discussing continence and virginity you say, "It
is good for a man not to touch a woman." And, "It is good for them
if they abide even as I." And, "I think that this is good by reason
of the present distress." And, "That it is good for a man so to be." When
you come to marriage, you do not say it is good to marry, because you cannot
then add "than to burn;" but you say, "It is better to marry
than to burn." If marriage in itself be good, do not compare it with fire,
but simply say" It is good to marry." I suspect the goodness of that
thing which is forced into the position of being only the lesser of two evils.
What I want is not a smaller evil, but a thing absolutely good.

10. So
far the first section has been explained. Let us now come to those which
follow.[4] "But unto the married I give charge, yea not I, but the
Lord. That the wife depart not from her husband (but and if she depart, let
her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband): and that the husband
leave not his wife. But to the rest say I, not the Lord: If any brother hath
an unbelieving wife, and she is content to dwell with him, let him not leave
her," and so on to the words "As God hath called each, so let him
walk. And so ordain I in all the churches." This passage has no bearing
on our present controversy. For he ordains, according to the mind of the Lord,
that excepting the cause of fornication, a wife must not be put away, and that
a wife who has been put away, may not, so long as her husband lives, be married
to another, or at all events that her duty is to be reconciled to her husband.
But in the case of those who are already married at the time of conversion,
that is to say, supposing one of the two were a believer, he enjoins that the
believer shall not put away the unbeliever. And after stating his reason, viz.,
that the unbeliever who is unwilling to leave the believer becomes thereby
a candidate for the faith, he commands, on the other hand, that if the unbeliever
reject the faithful one on account of the faith of Christ, the believer ought
to depart, lest husband or wife be preferred to Christ, in comparison with
Whom we must hold even life itself cheap. Yet at the present day many women
despising the Apostle's command, are joined to heathen husbands, and prostitute
the temples of Christ to idols. They do not understand that they are part of
His body though indeed they are His ribs. The Apostle is lenient to the union
of unbelievers, who having (believing) husbands, afterwards come to believe
in Christ. He does not extend his indulgence to those women who, although Christians,
have been married to heathen husbands. To these he elsewhere says,[1] "Be
not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness
and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord
hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? For we are a temple of
the living God." Although I know that crowds of matrons will be furious
against me: although I know that just as they have shamelessly despised the
Lord, so they will rave at me who am but a flea and the least of Christians:
yet I will speak out what I think. I will say what the Apostle has taught me,
that they are not on the side of righteousness, but of iniquity: not of light,
but of darkness: that they do not belong to Christ, but to Belial: that they
are not temples of the living God, but shrines and idols of the dead. And,
if you wish to see more clearly how utterly unlawful it is for a Christian
woman to marry a Gentile, consider what the same Apostle says,[2] "A wife
is bound for so long time as her husband liveth: but if the husband be dead,
she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord," that is,
to a Christian. He who allows second and third marriages in the Lord, forbids
first marriages with a Gentile. Whence Abraham also makes his servant swear
upon his thigh, that is, on Christ, Who was to spring from his seed, that he
would not bring an alien-born as a wife for his son Isaac. And Ezra checked
an offence of this kind against God by making his countrymen put away their
wives. And the prophet Malachi thus speaks,[1] "Judah hath dealt treacherously,
and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath
profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loveth, and hath married the daughter
of a strange god. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this,[2] him that
teacheth and him that learneth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him that offers
an offering unto the Lord of hosts." I have said this that they who compare
marriage with virginity, may at least know that such marriages as these are
on a lower level than digamy and trigamy.

11. In
the above discussion the Apostle has taught that the believer ought not to
depart from the unbeliever,
but remain in marriage as the faith found
them, and that each man whether married or single should continue as he was
when baptized into Christ; and then he suddenly introduces the metaphors of
circumcision and uncircumcision, of bond and free, and under those metaphors
treats of the married and unmarried.[3] "Was any man called being circumcised
? let him not become uncircumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision
is nothing: but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let each man abide
in that calling wherein he was called. Wast thou called being a bondservant?
Care not for it: but even if thou canst become free, use it rather. For he
that was called in the Lord being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman; likewise
he that was called, being free, is Christ's bondservant. Ye were bought with
a price; become not bondservants of men. Brethren, let each man, wherein he
was called, therein abide with God." Some, I suppose, will find fault
with the Apostle's way of reasoning. I would therefore ask first, What we are
to infer from his suddenly passing in a discussion concerning husbands and
wives to a comparison of Jew and Gentile, bond and free, and then returning,
when this point is settled, to the question about virgins, and telling us "Concerning
virgins I have no commandment from the Lord "; what has a comparison of
Jew and Gentile, bond and free, to do with wedlock and virginity? In the next
place, how are we to understand the words "Hath any been called in uncircumcision,
let him not be circumcised"?[1] Can a man who has lost his foreskin restore
it again at his pleasure? Then, in what sense are we to explain "For he
that was called in the Lord, being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman :
likewise he that was called, being free, is Christ's bondservant." Fourthly,
how is it that he who commanded servants to obey their masters according to
the flesh, now says, "Become net bondservants of men." Lastly, how
are we to connect with slavery, or with circumcision, his saying" Brethren,
let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God," which even
contradicts his previous opinion. We heard him say "Become not bondservants
of men." How can we then possibly abide in that vocation wherein we were
called, when many at the time they became believers had masters according to
the flesh, whose bondservants they are now forbidden to be? Moreover, what
has the argument about our abiding in the vocation wherein we were called,
to do with circumcision? for in another place the same Apostle cries aloud "Behold
i Paul tell you that, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing "?
We must conclude, therefore, that a higher meaning should be given to circumcision
and uncircumcision, bond and free, and that these words must be taken in close
connection with what has gone before. "Was anyone called being circumcised
? let him not become uncircumcised." If, he says, at the time you were
called and became a believer in Christ, if I say, you were called being circumcised
from a wife, that is, unmarried, do not marry a wife, that is, do not become
uncircumcised, lest you lay upon the freedom of circumcision and chastity the
burden of marriage. Again, if anyone was called in uncircumcision, let him
not be circumcised. You had a wife, he says, when you believed: do not think
the faith of Christ a reason for disagreement, because God called us in peace.[2] " Circumcision
is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments
of God." For neither celibacy nor marriage availeth anything without works,
since even faith, which is specially characteristic of Christians, if it have
not works, is said to be dead, and vestal virgins and Juno's widows might upon
these terms be numbered with the saints. "Let each man in the vocation
wherein he was called, therein abide." Whether he had, or had not, a wife
when he believed, let him remain in that condition in which he was when called.
Accordingly he does not so strongly urge virgins to be married, as forbid divorce.
And as he debars those who have wives from putting them away, so he cuts off
from virgins the power of being married. "Thou wast called being a slave,
heed it not; but even if thou canst become free, use it rather." Even
if you have, he says, a wife, and are bound to her, and pay her due, and have
not power over your own body; or if, to speak more clearly, you are the bondservant
of your wife, be not sad upon that account, nor sigh for the loss of your virginity.
But even if you can find some causes of discord, do not, for the sake of thoroughly
enjoying the liberty of chastity, seek your own welfare by destroying another.
Keep your wife awhile, and do not go too fast for her lagging footsteps: wait
till she follows. If you are patient, your spouse will become a sister, "For
he that was called in the Lord, being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman:
likewise, he that was called being free, is Christ's bondservant." He
gives his reasons for not wishing wives to be forsaken. He therefore says,
I command that Gentiles who believe on Christ do not abandon the married state
in which they were before embracing the faith: for he who had a wife when he
became a believer, is not so strictly devoted to the service of God as virgins
and unmarried persons. But, in a manner, he has more freedom, and the reins
of his bondage are relaxed; and, while he is the bondservant of a wife, he
is, so to speak, the freedman of the Lord. Moreover, he who when called by
the Lord had not a wife and was free from the bondage of wedlock, he is truly
Christ's bondservant. What happiness to be the bondservant, not of a wife but
of Christ, to serve not the flesh, but the spirit ![1] " For he who is
joined unto the Lord is one spirit." There was some fear that by saying "Wast
thou called being a bondservant ? Care not for it: but, even if thou canst
become free, use it rather," he might seem to have flouted continence,
and to have given us up to the slavery of marriage. He therefore makes a remark
which removes all cavil: "Ye were bought with a price, become not servants
of men." We have been redeemed with the most precious blood of Christ:
the Lamb was slain for us, and having been sprinkled with hyssop and the warm
drops of His blood, we have rejected poisonous pleasure. Why do we at whose
baptism Pharaoh died and all his host was drowned, again turn back in our hearts
to Egypt, and after the manna, angels' food, sigh for the garlic and the onions
and the cucumbers, and Pharaoh's meat?

12. Having
discussed marriage and continency he at length comes to virginity and says[1] "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord:
but I give my judgement, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be
faithful. I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress,
namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is," Here our opponent goes
utterly wild with exultation: this is his strongest battering-ram with which
he shakes the wall of virginity. "See," says he, "the Apostle
confesses that as regards virgins he has no commandment of the Lord, and he
who had with authority laid down the law respecting husbands and wives, does
not dare to command what the Lord has not enjoined. And rightly too. For what
is enjoined is commanded, what is commanded must be done, and that which must
be done implies punishment if it be not done. For it is useless to order a
thing to be done and yet leave the individual free to do it or not do it. If
the Lord had commanded virginity He would have seemed to condemn marriage,
and to do away with the seed-plot of mankind, of which virginity itself is
a growth. If He had cut off the root, how was He to expect fruit? If the foundations
were not first laid, how was He to build the edifice, and put on the roof to
cover all ! Excavators toil hard to remove mountains; the bowels of the earth
are pierced in the search for gold. And, when the tiny particles, first by
the blast of the furnace, then by the hand of the cunning workman have been
fashioned into an ornament, men do not call him blessed who has separated the
gold from the dross but him who wears the beautiful gold. Do not marvel then
if, placed as we are, amid temptations of the flesh and incentives to vice,
the angelic life be not exacted of us, but merely recommended. If advice be
given, a man is free to proffer obedience; if there be a command, he is a servant
bound to compliance. "I have no commandment," he says, "of the
Lord: but I give my judgement, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord
to be faithful." If you have no commandment of the Lord, how dare you
give judgement without orders? The Apostle will reply: Do you wish me to give
orders where the Lord has offered a favour rather than laid down a law? The
great Creator and Fashioner, knowing the weakness of the vessel which he made,
left virginity open to those whom He addressed; and shall I, the teacher of
the Gentiles, who have become all things to all men that I might gain all,
shall I lay upon the necks of weak believers from the very first the burden
of perpetual chastity ? Let them[1] begin with short periods of release from
the marriage bond, and give themselves unto prayer, that when they have tasted
the sweets of chastity they may desire the perpetual possession of that wherewith
they were temporarily delighted. The Lord, when tempted by the Pharisees, and
asked whether according to the law of Moses it was permitted to put away a
wife, forbade the practice altogether. After weighing His words the disciples
said to Him:[2] " If the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not
expedient to marry. But He said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying,
but they to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs, which were so born from
their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, which were made eunuchs by men:
and there are eunuchs, which made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's
sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." The reason is
plain why the Apostle said, "concerning virgins I have no commandment
of the Lord." Surely; because the Lord had previously said "All men
cannot receive the word, but they to whom it is given," and "He that
is able to receive it, let him receive it."[3] The Master of the Christian
race offers the reward, invites candidates to the course, holds in His hand
the prize of virginity, points to the fountain of purity, and cries aloud[4]" If
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." "He that is able
to receive it, let him receive it." He does not say, you must drink, you
must run, willing or unwilling: but whoever is willing and able to run and
to drink, he shall conquer, he shall be satisfied. And therefore Christ loves
virgins more than others, because they willingly give what was not commanded
them. And it indicates greater grace to offer what you are not bound to give,
than to render what is exacted of you. The apostles, contemplating the burden
of a wife, exclaimed, "If the case of the man is so with his wife, it
is not expedient to marry." Our Lord thought well of their view. You rightly
think, said He, that it is not expedient for a man who is hastening to the
kingdom of heaven to take a wife: but it is a hard matter, and all men do not
receive the saying, but they to whom it has been given. Some are eunuchs by
nature, others by the violence of men. Those eunuchs please Me who are such
not of necessity, but of free choice. Willingly do I take them into my bosom
who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, and in order
to worship Me have renounced the condition of their birth. We must now explain
the words, "Those who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake." If they who have made themselves eunuchs have the reward
of the kingdom of heaven, it follows that they who have not made themselves
such cannot be placed with those who have. He who is able, he says, to receive
it, let him receive it. It is a mark of great faith and of great virtue, to
be the pure temple of God, to offer oneself a whole burnt-offering, and, according
to the same apostle, to be holy both in body and in spirit. These are the eunuchs,
who thinking themselves dry trees because of their impotence, hear by the mouth
of[1] Isaiah that they have a place prepared in heaven for sons and daughters.
Their type is[2] Ebedmelech the eunuch in Jeremiah, and the eunuch of Queen
Candace in the[3] Acts of the Apostles, who on account of the strength of his
faith gained the name of a man. These are they to whom Clement, who was the
successor of the Apostle Peter, and of whom the Apostle Paul makes mention,
wrote letters, directing almost the whole of his discourse to the subject of
virgin purity. After them there is a long series of apostolic men, martyrs,
and men illustrious no less for holiness than for eloquence, with whom we may
very easily become acquainted through their own writings.[4] "I think,
therefore," he says, "that this is good for the present distress." What
is this distress which, in contempt of the marriage tie, longs for the liberty
of virginity?[5] "Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give
suck in those days." We have not here a condemnation of harlots and brothels,
of whose damnation there is no doubt, but of the swelling womb, and wailing
infancy, the fruit as well as the work of marriage. "For it is good for
a man so to be." If it is good for a man so to be, it is bad for a man
not so to be.[6] "Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art
thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife." Each one of us has his appointed
bounds; let me have what is mine, and keep your own. If thou art bound to a
wife, give her not a bill of divorce. If I am loosed from a wife, I will not
seek a wife. As I do not dissolve marriages once contracted: so you should
not bind what is loosed. And at the same time the meaning of the words must
be taken into account. He who has a wife is regarded as a debtor, and is said
to be uncircumcised, to be the servant of his wife, and like bad servants to
be bound. But he who has no wife, in the first place owes no man anything,
then is circumcised, thirdly is free, lastly, is loosed.

13. Let
us run through the remaining points, for our author is so voluminous that
we cannot linger
over every
detail. "But and if thou marry, thou
hast not sinned." It is one thing not to sin, another to do good. "And
if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned." Not that virgin who has once
for all dedicated herself to the service of God: for, should one of these marry,
she will have damnation, because she has made of no account her first faith.
But, if our adversary objects that this saying relates to widows, we reply
that it applies with still greater force to virgins, since marriage is forbidden
even to widows whose previous marriage had been lawful. For virgins who marry
after consecration are rather incestuous than adulterous. And, for fear he
should by saying, "And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned," again
stimulate the unmarried to be married, he immediately checks himself, and by
introducing another consideration, invalidates his previous concession. "Yet," says
he, "such shall have tribulation in the flesh." Who are they who
shall have tribulation in the flesh? They to whom he had before indulgently
said "But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry,
she hath not sinned. Yet such shall have tribulation in the flesh." We
in our inexperience thought that marriage had at least the joys of the flesh.
But if they who are married have tribulation even in the flesh, which is imagined
to be the sole source of their pleasure, what else is there to marry for, when
in the spirit, and in the mind, and in the flesh itself there is tribulation. "But
I would spare you." Thus, he says, I allege tribulation as a motive, as
though there were not greater obligations to refrain. "But this I say,
brethren, the time is shortened, that henceforth both those that have wives
may be as though they had none." I am by no means now discussing virgins,
of whose happiness no one entertains a doubt. I am coming to the married. The
time is short, the Lord is at hand. Even though we lived nine hundred years,
as did men of old, yet we ought to think that short which must one day have
an end, and cease to be. But, as things are, and it is not so much the joy
as the tribulation of marriage that is short, why do we take wives whom we
shall soon be compelled to lose?[1] "And those that weep, and those that
rejoice, and those that buy, and those that use the world, as though they wept
not, as though they rejoiced not, as though they bought not, as though they
did not use the world: for the fashion of this world passeth away." If
the world, which comprehends all things, passes away, yea if the fashion and
intercourse of the world vanishes like the clouds, amongst the other works
of the world, marriage too will vanish away. For after the resurrection there
will be no wedlock. But if death be the end of marriage, why do we not voluntarily
embrace the inevitable? And why do we not, encouraged by the hope of the reward,
offer to God that which must be wrung from us against our will. "He that
is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord:
but he that is married is careful for the things of the world how he may please
his wife, and is[1] divided." Let us look at the difference between the
cares of the virgin, and those of the married man. The virgin longs to please
the Lord, the husband to please his wife, and that he may please her be is
careful for the things of the world, which will of course pass away with the
world. "And he is divided," that is to say, is distracted with manifold
cares and miseries. This is not the place to describe the difficulties of marriage,
and to revel in rhetorical commonplaces. I think I delivered myself fully as
regards this point in my argument against[2] Helvidius, and in the book which
I addressed to[3] Eustochium. At all events[4] Tertullian while still a young
man, gave himself full play with this subject. And my teacher,[5] Gregory of
Nazianzus, discussed virginity and marriage in some Greek verses. I now briefly
beg my reader to note that in the Latin manuscripts we have the reading "there
is a difference also between the virgin and the wife." The words, it is
true, have a meaning of their own, and have by me, as well as by others, been
so explained as showing the bearing of the passage. Yet they lack apostolic
authority, since the Apostle's words are as we have translated them--" He
is careful for the things of the world, how he may please his wife,[6] and
he is divided." Having laid down this, he passes to the virgins and the
continent, and says "The woman that is unmarried and a virgin thinks of
the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and in spirit." Not
every unmarried woman is also a virgin. But every virgin is of course unmarried.
It may be, that regard for elegance of expression led him to repeat the same
idea by means of another word and speak of "a woman unmarried and a virgin";
or at least he may have wished to give to "unmarried" the definite
meaning of "virgin," so that we might not suppose him to include
harlots, united to no one by the fixed bonds of wedlock, among the "unmarried." Of
what, then, does she that is unmarried and a virgin think ? "The things
of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." Supposing
there were nothing else, and that no greater reward followed virginity, this
would be motive enough for her choice, to think of the things of the Lord.
But he immediately points out the contents of her thought--that she may be
holy both in body and spirit. For there are virgins in the flesh, not in the
spirit, whose body is intact, their soul corrupt. But that virgin is a sacrifice
to Christ, whose mind has not been defiled by thought, nor her flesh by lust.
On the other hand, she who is married thinks of the things of the world, how
she may please her husband. Just as the man who has a wife is anxious for the
things of the world, how he may please his wife, so the married woman thinks
of the things of the world, how she may please her husband. But we are not
of this world, which lieth in wickedness, the fashion of which passeth away,
and concerning which the Lord said to the Apostles,[1] "If ye were of
the world, the world would love its own." And lest perchance someone might
suppose that he was laying the heavy burden of chastity on unwilling shoulders,
he at once adds his reasons for persuading to it, and says:[2] "And this
I say for your profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which
is seemly, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction." The
Latin words do not convey the meaning of the Greek. What words shall we use
to render <greek>Pros</greek> <greek>to</greek> <greek>euskhmon</greek> <greek>kai</greek> <greek>euprosedron</greek> <greek>tr</greek> K<greek>uriw</greek> <greek>aperispastws</greek>The
difficulty of translation accounts for the fact that the clause is completely
wanting in Latin manuscripts. Let us, however, use the passage as we have translated
it. The Apostle does not lay a snare upon us, nor does he compel us to be what
we do not wish to be; but he gives his advice as to what is fair and seemly,
he would have us attend upon the Lord and ever be anxious about that service,
and await the Lord's will, so that like active and well-armed soldiers we may
obey orders, and may do so without distraction, which, according to[3] Ecclesiastes,
is given to the men of this world that they may be exercised thereby. But if
anyone considers that his virgin, that is, his flesh, is wanton and boiling
with lust, and cannot be bridled, and he must do one of two things, either
take a wife or fall, let him do what he will, he does not sin if he marry.
Let him do, he says, what he will, not what he ought. He does not sin if he
marry a wife; yet, he does not well if he marry :[1] "But he that standeth
stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power as touching his
own will, and hath determined this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin,
shall do well. So then both he that giveth his own virgin in marriage doeth
well; and he that giveth her not in marriage shall do better." With marked
propriety he had previously said "He who marries a wife does not sin":
here he tells us "He that keepeth his own virgin doeth well." But
it is one thing not to sin, another to do well.[2] " Depart from evil," he
says, "and do good." The former we forsake, the latter we follow.
In this last lies perfection. But whereas he says "and he that giveth
his virgin in marriage doeth well," it might be supposed that our remark
does not hold good; he therefore forthwith detracts from this seeming good
and puts it in the shade by comparing it with another, and saying, "and
he that giveth her not in marriage shall do better." If he had not intended
to draw the inference of doing better, he would never have previously referred
to doing well. But where there is something good and something better, the
reward is not in both cases the same, and where the reward is not one and the
same, there of course the gifts are different. The difference, then, between
marriage and virginity is as great as that between not sinning and doing well;
nay rather, to speak less harshly, as great as between good and better.

14. He
has ended his discussion of wedlock and virginity, and has carefully steered
between the two precepts
without turning to the right hand or to the
left. He has followed the royal road and fulfilled the command[3] not to be
righteous over much. Now again he compares monogamy with digamy, and as he
had subordinated marriage to virginity, so he makes second marriages inferior
to first, and says,[4] "A wife is bound for so long time as her husband
liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will;
only in the Lord. But she is happier if she abide as she is, after my judgment:
and I think that I also have the Spirit of God." He allows second marriages,
but to such persons as wish for them and are not able to contain; lest,[3]
having "waxed wanton against Christ," they desire to marry, "having
condemnation, because they have rejected their first faith;" and he makes
the concession because many had already turned aside after Satan. [1]" But," says
he, "they will be happier if they abide as they are," and he immediately
adds the weight of Apostolic authority, "after my judgement." And
that an Apostle's authority might not, like that of an ordinary man, be without
weight, he added, "and I think that I also have the Spirit of God." When
he incites to continence, it is not by the judgement or spirit of man, but
by the judgement and Spirit of God; when, however, he grants the indulgence
of marriage, he does not mention the Spirit of God, but weighs his judgement
with wisdom, and adapts the severity of the strain to the weakness of the individual.
In this sense we must take the whole of the following passage:[2] "For
the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth;but
if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then
if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called
an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she
is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man." And similarly
the words to Timothy,[3] " I desire therefore that the younger widows
marry, bear children, rule the household, give none occasion to the adversary
for reviling: for already some are turned aside after Satan," and so on.
For as on account of the danger of fornication he allows virgins to marry,
and makes that excusable which in itself is not desirable, so to avoid this
same fornication, he allows second marriages to widows. For it is better to
know a single husband, though he be a second or third, than to have many paramours:
that is, it is more tolerable for a woman to prostitute herself to one man
than to many. At all events this is so if the Samaritan woman in John's Gospel
who said she had her sixth husband was reproved by the Lord because he was
not her husband. For where there are more husbands than one the proper idea
of a husband, who is a single person, is destroyed. At the beginning one rib
was turned into one wife. "And they two, " he says, "shall be
one flesh": not three, or four; otherwise, how can they be any longer
two, if they are several. Lamech, a man of blood and a murderer, was the first
who divided one flesh between two wives. Fratricide and digamy were abolished
by the same punishment--that of the deluge. The one was avenged seven times,
the other seventy times seven. The guilt is as widely different as are the
numbers. What the holiness of second marriage is, appears from this--that a
person twice married[1] cannot be enrolled in the ranks of the clergy, and
so the Apostle tells Timothy,[2] "Let none be enrolled as a widow under
threescore years old, having been the wife of one man." The whole command
concerns those widows who are supported on the alms of the Church. The age
is therefore limited, so that those only may receive the food of the poor who
can no longer work. And at the same time, consider that she who has had two
husbands, even though she be a widow, decrepit, and in want, is not a worthy
recipient of the Church's funds. But if she be deprived of the bread of charity,
how much more is she deprived of that bread which cometh down from heaven,
and of which if a man eat unworthily, he shall be guilty of outrage offered
to the body and the blood of Christ?

15. The
passages, however, which I have adduced in support of my position and in
which it is permitted
to
widows, if they so desire, to marry again,
are interpreted by some concerning those widows who had lost their husbands
and were found in that condition when they became Christians. For, supposing
a person baptized and her husband dead, it would not be consistent if the Apostle
were to bid her marry another, when he enjoins even those who have wives to
be as though they had them not. And this is why the number of wives which a
man may take is not defined, because when Christian baptism has been received,
even though a third or a fourth wife has been taken, she is reckoned as the
first. Otherwise, if, after baptism and after the death of a first husband,
a second is taken why should not a sixth after the death of the second, third,
fourth, and fifth, and so on? For it is possible, that through some strange
misfortune, or by the judgement of God cutting short repeated marriages, a
young woman may have several husbands, while an old woman may be left a widow
by her first husband in extreme age. The first Adam was married once: the second
was unmarried. Let the supporters of second marriages shew us as their leader
a third Adam who was twice married. But granted that Paul allowed second marriages:
upon the same grounds it follows that he allows even third and fourth marriages,
or a woman may marry as often as her husband dies. The Apostle was forced to
choose many things which he did not like. He circumcised Timothy, and shaved
his own head, practised going barefoot, let his hair grow long, and cut it
at Cenchrea. And he had certainly chastised the Galatians, and blamed Peter
because for the sake of Jewish observances he separated himself from the Gentiles.
As then in other points connected with the discipline of the Church he was
a Jew to Jews, a Gentile to Gentiles, and was made all things to all men, that
he might gain all: so too he allowed second marriages to incontinent persons,
and did not limit the number of marriages, in order that women, although they
saw themselves permitted to take a second husband, in the same way as a third
or a fourth was allowed, might blush to take a second, lest they should be
compared to those who were three or four times married. If more than one husband
be allowed, it makes no difference whether he be a second or a third, because
there is no longer a question of single marriage.[1] "All things are lawful,
but not all things are expedient." I do not condemn second, nor third,
nor, pardon the expression, eighth marriages: I will go still further and say
that I welcome even a penitent whoremonger. Things that are equally lawful
must be weighed in an even balance.

16. But
he takes us to the Old Testament, and beginning with Adam goes on to Zacharias
and Elizabeth.
He
next confronts us with Peter and the rest of
the Apostles. We are therefore bound to traverse the same course of argument
and show that chastity was always preferred to the condition of marriage. And
as regards Adam and Eve we must maintain that before the fall they were virgins
in Paradise: but after they sinned, and were cast out of Paradise, they were
immediately married. Then we have the passage,[2] "For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain
shall become one flesh," in explanation of which the Apostle straightway
adds,[3] "This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ, and
of the Church." Christ in the flesh is a virgin, in the spirit he is once
married. For he has one Church, concerning which the same Apostle says,[4] "Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church." If Christ loves
the Church holily, chastely, and without spot, let husbands also love their
wives in chastity. And let everyone know how to possess his vessel in sanctification
and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles who know not
God:[5] "For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification:
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the
new man, which is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that
created him: where there cannot be male and female, Greek and Jew, circumcision
and uncumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, free man: but Christ is all,
and in all." The link of marriage is not found in the image of the Creator.
When difference of sex is done away, and we are putting off the old man, and
putting on the new, then we are being born again into Christ a virgin, who
was both born of a virgin, and is born again through[1] virginity. And whereas
he says "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," it
was necessary first to plant the wood and to let it grow, so that there might
be an after-growth for cutting down. And at the same time we must bear in mind
the meaning of the phrase, "replenish the earth." Marriage replenishes
the earth, virginity fills Paradise. This too we must observe, at least if
we would faithfully follow the Hebrew, that while Scripture on the first, third,
fourth, fifth, and sixth days relates that, having finished the works of each, "God
saw that it was good," on the second day it omitted this altogether, leaving
us to understand that two is not a good number because it destroys unity, and
prefigures the marriage compact. Hence it was that all the animals which Noah
took into the ark by pairs were unclean. Odd numbers denote cleanness. And
yet by the double number is represented another mystery: that not even in beasts
and unclean birds is second marriage approved. For unclean animals went in
two and two, and clean ones by sevens, so that Noah after the flood might be
able to immediately offer to God sacrifices from the latter.

17. But if Enoch was translated, and Noah was preserved at the deluge, I do
not think that Enoch was translated because he had a wife, but because he was[2]
the first to call upon God and to believe in the Creator; and the Apostle Paul
fully instructs us concerning him in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Noah, moreover,
who was preserved as a kind of second root for the human race, must of course
be preserved together with his wife and sons, although in this there is a Scripture
mystery. The ark,[3] according to the Apostle Peter, was a type of the Church,
in which eight souls were saved. When Noah entered into it, both he and his
sons were separated from their wives; but when he landed from it, they united
in pairs, and what had been separated in the ark, that is, in the Church, was
joined together in the intercourse of the world. And at the same time if the
ark had many compartments and little chambers, and was made with second and
third stories, and was filled with different beasts, and was furnished with
dwellings, great or small, according to the kind of animal, I think all this
diversity in the compartments was a figure of the manifold character of the
Church.

18. He
raises the objection that when God gave his second blessing, permission was
granted to eat flesh,
which
had not in the first benediction been allowed.
He should know that just as divorce according to the Saviour's word was not
permitted from the beginning, but on account of the hardness of our heart was
a concession of Moses to the human race, so too the eating of flesh was unknown
until the deluge. But after the deluge, like the quails given in the desert
to the murmuring people, the poison of flesh-meat was offered to our teeth.
The Apostle writing to the Ephesians[1] teaches that God had purposed in the
fulness of time to sum up and renew in Christ Jesus all things which are in
heaven and in earth. Whence also the Saviour himself in the Revelation of John
says,[2] "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." At
the beginning of the human race we neither ate flesh, nor gave bills of divorce,
nor suffered circumcision for a sign. Thus we reached the deluge. But after
the deluge, together with the giving of the law which no one could fulfil,
flesh was given for food, and divorce was allowed to hard-hearted men, and
the knife of circumcision was applied, as though the hand of God had fashioned
us with something superfluous. But once Christ has come in the end of time,
and Omega passed into Alpha and turned the end into the beginning, we are no
longer allowed divorce, nor are we circumcised, nor do we eat flesh, for the
Apostle says,[3] "It is good not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine." For
wine as well as flesh was consecrated after the deluge.

19. What shall I say of Abraham who had three wives, as Jovinianus says, and
received circumcision as a sign of his faith ? If we follow him in the number
of his wives, let us also follow him in circumcision. We must not partly follow,
partly reject him. Isaac, moreover, the husband of one wife, Rebecca, prefigures
the Church of Christ, and reproves the wantonness of second marriage. And if
Jacob had two pairs of wives and concubines, and our opponent will not admit
that blear-eyed Leah, ugly and prolific, was a type of the synagogue, but that
Rachel, beautiful and long barren, indicated the mystery of the Church, let
me remind him that when Jacob did this thing he was among the Assyrians, and
in Mesopotamia in bondage to a hard master. But when he wished to enter the
holy land, he raised on Mount Galeed[1] the heap of witness, in token that
the lord of Mesopotamia had failed to find anything among his baggage, and
there swore that he would never return to the place of his bondage; and when,[2]
after wrestling with the angel at the brook Jabbok, he began to limp, because
the great muscle of his thigh was withered, he at once gained the name of Israel.[3]
Then the wife whom he once loved, and for whom he had served, was slain by
the son of sorrow near Bethlehem which was destined to be the birthplace of
our Lord, the herald of virginity: and the intimacies of Mesopotamia died in
the land of the Gospel.

20. But
I wonder why he set[4] Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance
even harlots
give
him pleasure; or[5] Onan who was slain because
he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual
intercourse except for the procreation of children? As regards Moses, it is
clear that he would have been in peril at the inn, if[6] Sephora which is by
interpretation a bird, had not circumcised her son, and cut off the foreskin
of marriage with the knife which prefigured the Gospel. This is that Moses
who when he saw a great vision and heard an angel, or the Lord speaking in
the bush,[7] could not by any means approach to him without first loosing the
latchet of his shoe, that is, putting off the bonds of marriage. And we need
not be surprised at this in the case of one who was a prophet, lawgiver, and
the friend of God, seeing that all the people when about to draw nigh to Mount
Sinai, and to hear the voice speaking to them, were commanded to sanctify themselves
in three days, I and keep themselves from their wives. I am out of order in
violating historical sequence, but I may point out that the same thing was
said by[8] Ahimelech the priest to David when he fled to Nob: "If only
the young men have kept themselves from women." And David answered," of
a truth about these three days." For the shew-bread, like the body of
Christ, might not be eaten by those who rose from the marriage bed. And in
passing we ought to consider the words "if only the young men have kept
themselves from women." The truth is that, in view of the purity of the
body of Christ, all sexual intercourse is unclean. In the law also it is enjoined
that the[9] high priest must not marry any but a virgin, nor must he take to
wife a widow. If a virgin and a widow are on the same level, how is it that
one is taken, the other rejected?[1] And the widow of a priest is bidden abide
in the house of her father, and not to contract a second marriage.[2] If the
sister of a priest dies in virginity, just as the priest is commanded to go
to the funeral of his father and mother, so must he go to hers. But if she
be married, she is despised as though she belonged not to him. He who has[3]
married a wife, and he who has planted a vineyard, an image of the propagation
of children, is forbidden to go to the battle. For he who is the slave of his
wife cannot be the Lord's soldier. And the layer in the tabernacle was cast
from the mirrors of the women who[4] fasted, signifying the bodies of pure
virgins: And within,[5] in the sanctuary, both cherubim, and mercy-seat, and
the ark of the covenant, and the table of shew-bread, and the candle-stick,
and the censer, were made of the purest gold. For silver might not be brought
into the holy of holies.

21. I
must not linger over Moses when my purpose is at full speed to lightly touch
on each topic
and to sketch
the outline of a proper knowledge of my subject.
I will pass to Joshua the son of Nun, who was previously called Ause, or better,
as in the Hebrew, Osee, that is, Saviour. For he,[6] according to the epistle
of Jude, saved the people of Israel and led them forth out of Egypt, and brought
them into the land of promise. As soon as this Joshua[7] reached the Jordan,
the waters of marriage, which had ever flowed in the land, dried up and stood
in one heap; and the whole people, barefooted and on dry ground, crossed over,
and came to Gilgal, and there was a second time circumcised. If we take this
literally, it cannot possibly stand. For if we had two foreskins, or if another
could grow after the first was cut off, there would be room for speaking of
a second circumcision. But the meaning is that Joshua circumcised the people
who had crossed the desert, with the Gospel knife, and he circumcised them
with a stone knife, that what in the case of Moses' son was prefigured in a
few might under Joshua be fulfilled in all. Moreover, the very foreskins were
heaped together and buried, and covered with earth, and the fact that the reproach
of Egypt was taken away, and the name of the place, Gilgal, which is by interpretation[1]
revelation show that while the people wandered in the desert uncircumcised
their eyes were blinded Let us see what follows. After this Gospel circumcision
and the consecration of twelve stones at the place of revelation, the Passover
was immediately celebrated, a lamb was slain for them, and they ate the food
of the Holy Land. Joshua went forth, and was met by the Prince of the host,
sword in hand, that is either to shew that he was ready to fight for the circumcised
people, or to sever the tie of marriage. And in the same way that Moses was
commanded, so was he:[2] " loose thy shoe, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground." For if the armed host of the Lord was represented
by the trumpets of the priests, we may see in Jericho a type of the overthrow
of the world by the preaching of the Gospel. And to pass over endless details
(for it is not my purpose now to unfold all the mysteries of the Old Testament),[3]
five kings who previously reigned in the land of promise, and opposed the Gospel
army, were overcome in battle with Joshua. I think it is clearly to be understood
that before the Lord led his people from Egypt and circumcised them, sight,
smell, taste, hearing, and touch had the dominion, and that to these, as to
five princes, everything was subject. And when they[4] took refuge in the cave
of the body and in a place of darkness, Jesus entered the body itself and slew
them, that the source of their power might be the instrument of their death.

22. But
it is now time for us to raise the standard of Joshua's chastity. It is written
that Moses
had a wife.
Now Moses is interpreted both by our Lord
and by the Apostle to mean the law:[5] "They have Moses and the prophets." And[6] " Death
reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
likeness of Adam's transgression." And no one doubts that in both passages
Moses signifies the law. We read that Moses, that is the law, had a wife: shew
me then in the same way that Joshua the son of Nun had either wife or children,
and if you can do so, I will confess that I am beaten. He certainly received
the fairest spot in the division of the land of Judah, and died, not in the
twenties, which are ever unlucky in Scripture--by them are reckoned the years
of[1] Jacob's service,[2] the price of Joseph, and[3] sundry presents which
Esau who was fond of them received-but in the[4] tens, whose praises we have
often sung; and he was buried in[5] Thamnath Sore, that is, most perfect sovereignty,
or among those of a new covering, to signify the crowds of virgins, covered
by the Saviour's aid on Mount Ephraim, that is, the fruitful mountain; on the
north of the Mountain of Gaash, which is, being interpreted, disturbance: for[6] " Mount
Sion is on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King," is ever
exposed to hatred, and in every trial says[7] "But my feet had well nigh
slipped." The book which bears the name of Joshua ends with his burial.
Again in the book of Judges we read of him as though he had risen and come
to life again, and by way of summary his works are extolled. We read too[8] "So
Joshua sent the people away, every man unto his inheritance. that they might
possess the land." And "Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua," and
so on. There immediately follows: "And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant
of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old." Moses, moreover,
only saw the land of promise; he could not enter: and[9] "he died in the
land of Moab, and the Lord buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over
against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Let
us compare the burial of the two: Moses died in the land of Moab, Joshua in
the land of Judaea. The former was buried in a valley over against the house
of Phogor, which is, being interpreted, reproach (for the Hebrew Phogor corresponds
to Priapus[10]); the latter in Mount Ephraim on the north of Mount Gaash. And
in the simple expressions of the sacred Scriptures there is always a more subtle
meaning. The Jews gloried in children and child-bearing; and the barren woman,
who had not offspring in Israel, was accursed; but blessed was he whose seed
was in Sion, and his family in Jerusalem; and part of the highest blessing
was,[11] "Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts
of thy house, thy children like olive plants, round about thy table." Therefore
his grave is described as placed in a valley over against the house of an idol
which was in a special sense consecrated to lust. But we who fight under Joshua
our leader, even to the present day know not where Moses was buried. For we
despise Phogor, and all his shame, knowing that they who are in the flesh cannot
please God. And the Lord before the flood had said[1] " My spirit shall
not abide in man for ever, for that he also is flesh." Wherefore, when
Moses died, the people of Israel mourned for him but Joshua like one on his
way to victory was unmourned. For marriage ends at death; virginity thereafter
begins to wear the crown.

23. Next
he brings forward Samson, and does not consider that the Lord's Nazarite
was once shaven bald
by a
woman. And although Samson continues to be a type
of the Saviour because he loved a harlot from among the Gentiles, which harlot
corresponds to the Church, and because he slew more enemies in his death than
he did in his life, yet he does not set an example of conjugal chastity. And
he surely reminds us[2] of Jacob's prophecy--he was shaken by his runaway steed,
bitten by an adder and fell backwards. But why he enumerated Deborah, and Barak,
and the wife. of Heber the Kenite, I am at a loss to understand. For it is
one thing to draw up a list of military commanders in historical sequence,
another to indicate certain figures of marriage which cannot be found in them.
And whereas he prefers the fidelity of the father Jephthah to the tears of
the virgin daughter, that makes for us. For we are not commending virgins of
the world so much as those who are virgins for Christ's sake, and most Hebrews
blame the father for the rash vow he made,[3] "If thou wilt indeed deliver
the children of Ammon into mine hand, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh
forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the
children of Ammon, it shall be for the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a
burnt offering." Supposing (they say) a dog or an ass had met him, what
would he have done? Their meaning is that God so ordered events that he who
had improvidently made a vow, should learn his error by the death of his daughter.
And if Samuel who was brought up in the tabernacle married a wife, how does
that prejudice virginity ? As if at the present day also there were not many
married priests, and as though the Apostle did not[4] describe a bishop as
the husband of one wife, having children with all purity. At the same time
we must not forget that Samuel was a Levite, not a priest or high-priest. Hence
it was that his mother made for him a linen ephod, that is, a linen garment
to go over the shoulders, which was the proper dress of the Levites and of
the inferior order. And so he is not named in the Psalms among the priests,
but among those who call upon the name of the Lord:[1] "Moses and Aaron
among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name." For[2]
Levi begat Kohath, Kohath begat Amminadab, Amminadab begat Korah, Korah begat
Assir, Assir begat Elkanah, Elkanah begat Zuph, Zuph begat Tahath, Tahath begat
Eliel, Eliel begat Jeroham, Jeroham begat Elkanah, Elkanah begat Samuel. And
no one doubts that the priests sprang from the stock of Aaron, Eleazar, and
Phinees. And seeing that they had wives, they would be rightly brought against
us, if, led away by the error of the Encratites, we were to maintain that marriage
deserved censure, and our high priest were not after the order of Melchizedek,
without father, without mother,[3] A<greek>genealoghtos</greek>',
that is, unmarried. And much fruit truly did Samuel reap from his children!
he himself pleased God, but[4] begat such children as displeased the Lord.
But if in support of second marriage, he urges the instance of Boaz and Ruth,
let him know that in the Gospel (S. Matt. i. 6) to typify the Church even Rahab
the harlot is reckoned among our Lord's ancestors.

24. He
boasts that David bought his wife for two hundred foreskins. But he should
remember that David
had
numerous other wives, and afterwards received
Michal, Saul's daughter, whom her father had delivered to another, and when
he was old got heat from the embrace of the Shunammite maiden. And I do not
say this because I am bold enough to disparage holy men, but because it is
one thing to live under the law, another to live under the Gospel. David slew
Uriah the Hittite and committed adultery with Bathsheba. And because he was
a man of blood--the reference is not, as some think, to his wars, but to the[5]
murder--he was not permitted to build a temple of the Lord. But as for us,[6]
if we cause one of the least to stumble, and if we say to a brother[7] Raca,
or[8] use our eyes improperly, it were good that a millstone were hanged about
our neck, we shall be in danger of Gehenna, and a mere glance will be reckoned
to us for adultery. He passes on to Solomon, through whom wisdom itself sang
its own praises. Seeing that not content with dwelling upon his praises, he
calls him uxorious, I am surprised that he did not add the words of the Canticles:[1] "There
are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and maidens without number," and
those of the First Book of Kings;[2] And he had seven hundred wives, princesses,
and three hundred concubines, and others without number." These are they
who turned away his heart from the Lord: and yet before he had many wives,
and fell into sins of the flesh, at the beginning of his reign and in his early
years he built a temple to the Lord. For every one is judged not for what he
will be, but for what he is. But if Jovinianus approves the example of Solomon,
he will no longer be in favour of second and third marriages only, but unless
he has seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, he cannot be the king's
antitype or attain to his merit. I earnestly again and again remind you, my
reader, that I am compelled to speak as I do, and that I do not disparage our
predecessors under the law, but am well aware that they served their generation
according to their circumstances, and fulfilled the Lord's command to increase,
and multiply, and replenish the earth. And what is more they were figures of
those that were to come. But we to whom it is said,[3] "The time is shortened,
that henceforth those that have wives may be as though they had none," have
a different command, and for us virginity is consecrated by the Virgin Saviour.

25. What
folly it was to include Elijah and Elisha in a list of married men, is plain
without a
word from
me. For, since John Baptist came in the spirit
and power of Elijah, and John was a virgin, it is clear that he came not only
in Elijah's spirit, but also in his bodily chastity. Then the passage relating
to Hezekiah might be adduced (though Jovinianus with his wonted stupidity did
not notice it), in which after his recovery and the addition of fifteen years
to his life he said, "Now will I beget children." It must be remembered,
however, that in the Hebrew texts the passage is not so, but runs thus:[4] "The
father to the children shall make known thy faithfulness." Nor need we
wonder that Huldah, the prophetess, and wife of Shallum, was[5] consulted by
Josiah, King of Judah, when the captivity was approaching and the wrath of
the Lord was falling upon Jerusalem: since it is the rule of Scripture when
holy men fail, to praise women to the reproach of men. And it is superfluous
to speak of Daniel, for the Hebrews to the present day affirm that the three
youths were eunuchs, in accordance with the declaration of God which Isaiah
utters to Hezekiah:[1] "And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which
thou shalt beget, shall they take away: and they shall be eunuchs in the palace
of the King of Babylon." And again in Daniel we read:[2] "And the
king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in
certain of the children of Israel, even of the seed royal and of the nobles:
youth in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom,
and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science." The conclusion is
that if Daniel and the three youths were chosen from the seed royal, and if
Scripture foretold that that there should be eunuchs of the seed royal, these
men were those who were made eunuchs. If he meets us with the argument that
in Ezekiel[3] it is said that Noah, Daniel and Job in a sinful land could not
free their sons and daughters, we reply that the words are used hypothetically.
Noah and Job were not in existence at that time: we know that they lived many
ages before. And the meaning is this: if there were such and such men in a
sinful land, they shall not be able to save their own sons and daughters: because
the righteousness of the father shall not save the son, nor shall the sin of
one be imputed to another.[4] " For the soul that sinneth, it shall die." This,
too, must be said, that Daniel, as the history of his book shows, was taken
captive with King Jehoiakim at the same time that Ezekiel was also led into
captivity. How then could he have sons who was still a youth ? And only three
years had elapsed when he was brought in to wait upon the king. Let no one
suppose that Ezekiel at this time remembers Daniel as a man, not as a youth;
for "It came to pass," he says,[5] "in the sixth year," that
is of King Jehoiakim, "in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month
:" and, "as I sat in my house, and the eiders of Judah sat before
me." Yet on that same day it was said to him,[6] " Though these three
men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it." Daniel was therefore a youth,
and known to the people, either on account of his interpretation of the king's
dreams,[7] or on account of the release of Susannah, and the slaying of the
elders. And it is clearly proved that at the time these things were spoken
of Noah, Daniel, and Job, Daniel was still a youth and could not have had sons
and daughters, whom he might save by his righteousness. So far concerning the
Law.

26. Coming
to the Gospel he sets before us Zacharias and Elizabeth, Peter and his mother-in-law,
and,
with
a shamelessness to which we have now grown
accustomed, fails to understand that they, too, ought to have been reckoned
among those who served the Law. For the Gospel had no being before the crucifixion
of Christ--it was consecrated by His passion and by His blood. In accordance
with this rule Peter and the other Apostles (I must give Jovinianus something
now and then out of my abundance) had indeed wives, but those which they had
taken before they knew the Gospel. But once they were received into the Apostolate,
they forsook the offices of marriage. For when Peter, representing the Apostles,
says to the Lord:[1] "Lo we have left all and followed thee," the
Lord answered him,[2] "Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath
left house or wife, or brethren, or parents, or children for the kingdom of
God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the world
to come eternal life." But if, in order to show that all the Apostles
had wives, he meets us with the words[3] "Have we no right to lead about
women or wives" (for <greek>gunh</greek> in Greek has both
meanings) "even as the rest of the apostles, and Cephas, and the brethren
of the Lord?" let him add what is found in the Greek copies, "Have
we no right to lead about women that are sisters, or wives?" This makes
it clear that the writer referred to other holy women, who, in accordance with
Jewish custom, ministered to their teachers of their substance, as we read
was the practice with even our Lord himself. Where there is a previous reference
to eating and drinking, and the outlay of money, and mention is afterwards
made of women that are sisters, it is quite clear, as we have said, that we
must understand, not wives, but those women who ministered of their substance.
And we read the same account in the Old Testament of the Shunammite who was
wont to welcome Elisha, and to put for him a table, and bread, and a candlestick,
and the rest. At all events if we take <greek>gunaikas</greek>> to
mean wives, not women, the addition of the word sisters destroys the effect
of the word wives, and shews that they were related in spirit, not by wedlock.
Nevertheless, with the exception of the Apostle Peter, it is not openly stated
that the Apostles had wives; and since the statement is made of one while nothing
is said about the rest, we must understand that those of whom Scripture gives
no such description had no wives. Yet Jovinianus, who has arrayed against us
Zacharias and Elizabeth, Peter and his wife's mother, should know, that John
was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, that is, a virgin was the offspring
of marriage, the Gospel of the law, chastity of matrimony; so that by a virgin
prophet the virgin Lord might be both announced and baptized. But we might
say concerning Peter, that he had a mother-in-law when he believed, and no
longer had a wife, although in the[1] "Sentences" we read of both
his wife and daughter. But for the present our argument must be based wholly
on Scripture. He has made his appeal to the Apostles, because he thinks that
they, who hold the chief authority in our moral system and are the typical
Christian teachers, were not virgins. If, then, we allow that they were not
virgins (and, with the exception of Peter, the point cannot be proved), yet
I must tell him that it is to the Apostles that the words of Isaiah relate:[2] "Except
the Lord of hosts had left unto us a small remnant, we should have been as
Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah." So, then, they who were
by birth Jews could not under the Gospel recover the virginity which they had
lost in Judaism. And yet John, one of the disciples, who is related to have
been the youngest of the Apostles, and who was a virgin when he embraced Christianity,
remained a virgin, and on that account was more beloved by our Lord, and lay
upon the breast of Jesus. And what Peter, who had had a wife, did not dare
ask,[3] he requested John to ask. And after the resurrection, when Mary Magdalene
told them that the Lord had risen,[4] they both ran to the sepulchre, but John
outran Peter. And when they were fishing in the ship on the lake of Gennesaret,
Jesus stood upon the shore, and the Apostles knew not who it was they saw;[5]
the virgin alone recognized a virgin, and said to Peter, "It is the Lord." Again,
after hearing the prediction that he must be bound by another, and led whither
he would not, and must suffer on the cross. Peter said, "Lord what shall
this man do?" being unwilling to desert John, with whom he had always
been united. Our Lord said to him, "What is that to thee if I wish him
so to be?" Whence the saying went abroad among the brethren that that
disciple should not die. Here we have a proof that virginity does not die,
and that the defilement of marriage is not washed away by the blood of martyrdom,
but virginity abides with Christ, and its sleep is not death but a passing
to another state. If, however, Jovinianus should obstinately contend that John
was not a virgin, (whereas we have maintained that his virginity was the cause
of the special love our Lord bore to him), let him explain, if he was not a
virgin, why it was that he was loved more than the other Apostles. But you
say,[1] the Church was rounded upon Peter: although[2] elsewhere the same is
attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet
one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there
may be no occasion for schism. But why was not John chosen, who was a virgin?
Deference was paid to age, because Peter was the eider: one who was a youth,
I may say almost a boy, could not be set over men of advanced age; and a good
master who was bound to remove every occasion of strife among his disciples,
and who had said to them,[3] " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give
unto you," and, 4 " He that is the greater among you, let him be
the least of all," would not be thought to afford cause of envy against
the youth whom he had loved. We maybe sure that John was then a boy because
ecclesiastical history most clearly proves that he lived to the reign of Trajan,
that is, he fell asleep in the sixty-eighth year after our Lord's passion,
as I have briefly noted in my treatise on Illustrious Men.[5] Peter is an Apostle,
and John is an Apostle--the one a married man, the other a virgin; but Peter
is an Apostle only, John is both an Apostle and an Evangelist, and a prophet.
An Apostle, because he wrote to the Churches as a master; an Evangelist, because
he composed a Gospel, a thing which no other of the Apostles, excepting Matthew,
did; a prophet, for he saw in the island of Patmos, to which he had been banished
by the Emperor Domitian as a martyr for the Lord, an Apocalypse containing
the boundless mysteries of the future Tertullian, moreover, relates that he
was sent to Rome, and that having been plunged into a jar of boiling oil he
came out fresher and more active than when he went in. But his very Gospel
is widely different from the rest. Matthew as though he were writing of a man
begins thus: "The book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David,
the son of Abraham ;" Luke begins with the priesthood of Zacharias; Mark
with a prophecy of the prophets Malachi and Isaiah. The first has the face
of a man, on account of the genealogical table; the second, the face of a calf,
on account of the priesthood; the third, the face of a lion, on account of
the voice of one crying in the desert,[1] " Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make His paths straight." But John like an eagle soars aloft, and
reaches the Father Himself, and says,[2] " In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God," and so on. The virgin writer expounded mysteries which the
married could not, and to briefly sum up all and show how great was the privilege
of John, or rather of virginity in John, the Virgin Mother[3] was entrusted
by the Virgin Lord to the Virgin disciple.

27. But
we toil to no purpose. For our opponent urges against us the Apostolic sentence
and says,[4] "Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not
beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: but
she shall be saved through the child-bearing, if they continue in faith and
love and sanctification with sobriety." Let us consider what led the Apostle
to make this declaration:[5] "I desire therefore that the men pray in
every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing." So in
due course he lays down rules of life for the women and says "In like
manner that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and
sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; but
(which becometh women professing godliness) through good works. Let a woman
learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach,
nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness." And that the
lot of a woman might not seem a hard one, reducing her to the condition of
a slave to her husband, the Apostle recalls the ancient law and goes back to
the first example: that Adam was first made, then the woman out of his rib;
and that the Devil could not seduce Adam, but did seduce Eve; and that after
displeasing God she was immediately subjected to the man, and began to turn
to her husband; and he points out that she who was once tied with the bonds
of marriage and was reduced to the condition of Eve, might blot out the" old
transgression by the[1] procreation of children: provided, however, that she
bring up the children themselves in the faith and love of Christ, and in sanctification
and chastity; for we must not adopt the faulty reading of the Latin texts,
sobrietas, but castitas, that is,[2] <greek>swfrosunh</greek>.
You see how you are mastered by the witness of this passage also, and cannot
but be driven to admit that what you thought was on the side of marriage tells
in favour of virginity. For if the woman is saved in child-bearing, and the
more the children the greater the safety of the mothers, why did he add "if
they continue in faith and love and sanctification with chastity"? The
woman will then be saved, if she bear not children who will remain virgins:
if what she has herself lost, she attains in her children, and makes up for
the loss and decay, of the root by the excellence of the flower and fruit.

28. Above,
in passing, when our opponent adduced Solomon, who, although he had many
wives, nevertheless
built
the temple, I briefly replied that it was
my intention to run over the remaining points. Now that he may not cry out
that both Solomon and others under the law, prophets and holy men, have been
dishonoured by us, let us show what this very man with his many wives and concubines
thought of marriage. For no one can know better than he who suffered through
them, what a wife or woman is. Well then, he says in the Proverbs:[3] "The
foolish and bold woman comes to want bread." What bread? Surely that bread
which cometh down from heaven: and he immediately adds[4] "The earth-born
perish in her house, rush into the depths of hell." Who are the earth-born
that perish in her house? They of course who follow the first Adam, who is
of the earth, and not the second, who is from heaven. And again in another
place: "Like a worm in wood, so a wicked woman destroyeth her husband." But
if you assert that this was spoken of bad wives, I shall briefly answer: What
necessity rests upon me to run the risk of the wife I marry proving good or
bad?[5] "It is better," he says, "to dwell in a desert land,
than with a contentious and passionate woman in a wide house." How seldom
we find a wife without these faults, he knows who is married. Hence that sublime
orator, Varius Geminus[6] says well "The man who does not quarrel is a
bachelor.[1] "It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than
with a contentious woman in a house in common." If a house common to husband
and wife makes a wife proud and breeds contempt for the husband: how much more
if the wife be the richer of the two, and the husband but a lodger in her house!
She begins to be not a wife, but mistress of the house; and if she offend her
husband, they must part.[2] "A continual dropping on a wintry day" turns
a man out of doors, and so will a contentious woman drive a man from his own
house. She floods his house with her constant nagging and daily chatter, and
ousts him from his own home, that is the Church. Hence the same Solomon previously
commands:[3] "My son flows forth beyond." And the Apostle, writing
to the Hebrews, says "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things spoken, lest haply we flow forth beyond." But who can hide
from himself what is thus enigmatically expressed?[4] "The horseleech
had three I daughters, dearly loved, but they satisfied her not, and a fourth
is not satisfied when you say Enough; the grave, and woman's love, and the
earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that saith not, Enough." The
horse-leech is the devil, the daughters of the devil are dearly loved, and
they cannot be satisfied with the blood of the slain: the grave, and woman's
love, and the earth dry and scorched with heat. It is not the harlot, or the
adulteress who is spoken of; but woman's love in general is accused of ever
being insatiable; put it out, it bursts into flame; give it plenty, it is again
in need; it enervates a man's mind, and engrosses all thought except for the
passion which it feeds. What we read in the parable which follows is to the
same effect: "For three things the earth cloth tremble, and for four which
it cannot bear: for a servant when he is king: and a fool when he is filled
with meat: for an odious woman when she is married to a good husband: and an
handmaid that is heir to her mistress." See how a wife is classed with
the greatest evils. But if you reply that it is an odious wife, I will give
you the same answer as before--the mere possibility of such danger is in itself
no light matter. For he who marries a wife is uncertain whether he is marrying
an odious woman or one worthy of his love. If she be odious, she is intolerable.
If worthy of love, her love is compared to the grave, to the parched earth,
and to fire.

29. Let
us come to Ecclesiastes and adduce a few corroborative passages from him
also.[1] "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and
a time to pluck up that which is planted." We brought forth young under
the law with Moses, let us die under the Gospel with Christ. We planted in
marriage, let us by chastity pluck up that which was planted. "A time
to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing: a time to love, and a time
to hate: a time for war, and a time for peace." And at the same time he
warns us not to prefer the law to the Gospel; nor to think that virgin purity
is to be placed on a level with marriage:[2] " Better," he says, "is
the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." And he immediately adds: "Say
not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for
thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." And he gives the reason
why the latter days are better than the former:[3] " For wisdom with an
inheritance is good." Under the law carnal wisdom was followed by the
sword of death;under the Gospel an eternal inheritance awaits spiritual wisdom. "Behold,
this have I found,[4] saith the Preacher, one man among a thousand have I found;
but a woman among all those have I not found. Behold this only have I found,
that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." He
says that he had found man upright. Consider the force of the words. The word
man comprehends both male and female. "But a woman," he says, "among
all these have I not found." Let us read the beginning of Genesis, and
we shall find Adam, that is man, called both male and female. Having then been
created by God good and upright, by our own fault we have fallen to a worse
condition; and that which in Paradise had been upright, when we left Paradise
was corrupt. If you object that before they sinned there was a distinction
in sex between male and female, and that they could without sin have come together,
it is uncertain what might have happened. For we cannot know the judgements
of God, and anticipate his sentence as we choose. What really happened is plain
enough,--that they who in Paradise remained in perpetual virginity, when they
were expelled from Paradise were joined together. Or if Paradise admits of
marriage, and there is no difference between marriage and virginity, what prevented
their previous intercourse even in Paradise? They are driven out of Paradise;
and what they did not there, they do on earth; so that from the very earliest
days of humanity virginity was consecrated by Paradise, and marriage by earth.[1] "Let
thy garments be always white." The eternal whiteness of our garments is
the purity of virginity. In the morning we sowed our seed, and in the evening
let us not cease. Let us who served marriage under the law, serve virginity
under the Gospel.

30. I
pass to the Song of Songs, and whereas our opponent thinks it makes altogether
for marriage,
I shall
show that it contains the mysteries of virginity.
Let us hear what the bride says before that the bridegroom comes to earth,
suffers, descends to the lower world, and rises again.[2] "We will make
for thee likenesses of gold with ornaments of silver while the king sits at
his table." Before the Lord rose again, and the Gospel shone, the bride
had not gold, but likenesses of gold. As for the silver, however, which she
professes to have at the marriage, she not only had silver ornaments, but she
had them in variety--in widows, in the continent, and in the married. Then
the bridegroom makes answer to the bride, and teaches her that the shadow of
the old law has passed away, and the truth of the Gospel has come.[3] " Rise
up, my love my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain
is over and gone." This relates to the Old Testament. Once more he speaks
of the Gospel and of virginity: "The flowers appear on the earth, the
time of the pruning of vines has come." Does he not seem to you to say
the very same thing that the Apostle says:[4] "The time is shortened that
henceforth both those that have wives may be as though they had none "?
And more plainly does he herald chastity:[5] "The voice," he says, "of
the turtle is heard in our land." The turtle, the chastest of birds, always
dwelling in lofty places, is a type of the Saviour. Let us read the works of
naturalists and we shall find that it is the nature of the turtle-dove, if
it lose its mate, not to take another; and we shall understand that second
marriage is repudiated even by dumb birds. And immediately the turtle says
to its fellow:[6] "The fig tree hath put forth its green figs," that
is, the commandments of the old law have fallen, and the blossoming vines of
the Gospel give forth their fragrance. Whence the Apostle also says,[1] "We
are a sweet savour of Christ."[2] " Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away. O my dove, thou art in the clefts of the rock, in the covert
of the steep place. Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for
sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely."[3] Whilst thou coveredst
thy countenance like Moses and the veil of the law remained, I neither saw
thy face, nor did I condescend to hear thy voice. I said,[4] "Yea, when
ye make many prayers, I will not hear." But now with unveiled face behold
my glory, and shelter thyself in the cleft and steep places of the solid rock.
On hearing this the bride disclosed the mysteries of chastity:[6] " My
beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth his flock among the lilies," that
is among the pure virgin bands. Would you know what sort of a throne our true
Solomon, the Prince of Peace, has, and what his attendants are like?[6] "Behold," he
says, "it is the litter of Solomon: threescore mighty men are about it,
of the mighty men of Israel. They all handle the sword, and are expert in war:
every man hath his sword upon his thigh." They who are about Solomon have
their sword upon their thigh, like Ehud, the left-handed judge, who slew the
fattest of foes, a man devoted to the flesh, and cut short all his pleasures.[7] "I
will get me," he says, "to the mountain of myrrh;" to those,
that is, who have mortified their bodies; "and to the hill of frankincense," to
the crowds of pure virgins; "and I will say to my bride, thou art all
fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee." Whence too the Apostle:[8] "That
he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing."[9] "Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
with me from Lebanon. Thou shalt come[10] and pass on from the beginning of
faith, from the top of Sanir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains
of the leopards." Lebanon is, being interpreted, whiteness. Come then,
fairest bride, concerning whom it is elsewhere said[11] "Who is she that
cometh up, all in white?" and pass on by way of this world, from the beginning
of faith, and from Sanir, which is by interpretation, God of light, as we read
in the psalm:[12] "Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and light unto
my path;" and "from Hermon," that is, consecration: and "flee
from the lions' dens, and the mountains of the leopards who cannot change their
spots." Flee, he says, from the lions' dens, flee from the pride of devils,
that when thou hast been consecrated to me, I may be able to say unto thee:[1] "Thou
hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, thou hast ravished mine heart
with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck." What he says is something
like this--I do not reject marriage: you have a second eye, the left, which
I have given to you on account of the weakness of those who cannot see the
right. But I am pleased with the right eye of virginity, and if it be blinded
the whole body is in darkness. And that we might not think he had in view carnal
love and bodily marriage, he take once excludes this meaning by saying[2] "Thou
hast ravished my heart, my bride, my sister." The name sister excludes
all suspicion of unhallowed love. "How fair are thy breasts with wine," those
breasts concerning which he had said above, My beloved is mine, and I am his: "betwixt
my breasts shall he lie," that is in the princely portion of the heart
where the Word of God has its lodging. What wine is that which gives beauty
to the breasts of the bride, and fills them with the milk of chastity? That,
for-sooth, of which the bridegroom goes on to speak:[3] "I have drunk
my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends: yea, drink and be drunken, my brethren." Hence
the Apostles also were said to be filled with new wine; with new, he says,
not with old wine; because[4] new wine is put into fresh wine-skins, and they[5]
did not walk in oldness of the letter, but in newness of the Spirit. This is
wine wherewith when youths and maidens are intoxicated, they at once thirst
for virginity; they are filled with the spirit of chastity, and the prophecy
of Zechariah comes to pass, at least if we follow the Hebrew literally, for
he prophesied concerning virgins:[6] "And the streets of the city shall
be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. For what is his goodness,
and what is his beauty, but the corn of the elect, and wine that giveth birth
to virgins?" They are virgins of whom it is written in the forty-fifth
psalm:[7] "The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought
unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be led: they shall enter
into the King's palace."

31. Then
follows:[8] "A garden shut up is my sister, my bride: a garden
shut up, a fountain sealed." That which is shut up and sealed reminds
us of the mother of our Lord who was a mother and a Virgin. Hence it was that
no one before or after our Saviour was laid in his new tomb, hewn in the solid
rock. And yet she that was ever a Virgin is the mother of many virgins. For
next we read: "Thy shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with precious
fruits." By pomegranates and fruits is signified the blending of all virtues
in virginity.[1] " My beloved is white and ruddy "; white in virginity,
ruddy in martyrdom. And because He is white and ruddy, therefore it is immediately
added[2] " His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely." The
virgin bridegroom having been praised by the virgin bride, in turn praises
the virgin bride, and says to her:[3]. How beautiful are thy feet in sandals,[4]
O daughter of Aminadab," which is, being interpreted, a people that affereth
itself willingly. For virginity is voluntary, and therefore the steps of the
Church in the beauty of chastity are praised. This is not the time for me like
a commentator to explain all the mysteries of virginity from the Song of Songs
I have no doubt that the fastidious reader will turn up his nose at what has
already been said.

32. Isaiah
tells of the mystery of our faith and hope:[5] "Behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." I know
that the Jews are accustomed to meet us with the objection that in Hebrew the
word Almah does not mean a virgin, but a young woman. And, to speak truth,
a virgin is properly called Bethulah, but a young woman, or a girl, is not
Almah, but Naarah![6] What then is the meaning of Almah? A hidden virgin, that
is, not merely virgin, but a virgin and something more, because not every virgin
is hidden, shut off from the occasional sight of men. Then again, Rebecca,
on account of her extreme purity, and because she was a type of the Church
which she represented in her own virginity, is described in Genesis as Almah,
not Bethulah, as may clearly be proved from the words of Abraham's servant,
spoken by him in Mesopotamia:[7] "And he said, O Lord, the God of my master
Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go: behold I stand by the fountain
of water; and let it come to pass, that the maiden which cometh forth to draw,
to whom I shall say, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of this pitcher to
drink; and she shall say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy
camels: let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master's
son." Where he speaks of the maiden coming forth to draw water, the Hebrew
word is Almah, that is, a virgin secluded., and guarded by her parents with
extreme care. Or, if if this be not so, let them at least show me where the
word is applied to married women as well, and I will confess my ignorance. "Behold
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." If virginity be not preferred
to marriage, why did not the Holy Spirit choose a married woman, or a widow?
For at that time Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, was alive,
distinguished for purity, and always free to devote herself to prayers and
fasting in the temple of God. If the life, and good works, and fasting without
virginity can merit the advent of the Holy Spirit, she might well have been
the mother of our Lord. Let us hasten to the rest:[1] "The virgin daughter
of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn." To her whom he
called daughter the prophet also gave the title virgin, for fear that if he
spoke only of a daughter, it might be supposed that she was married. This is
the virgin daughter whom elsewhere he thus addresses:[2] " Sing, O barren,
thou that dost not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that
didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate, than
the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." This is she of whom
God by the mouth of Jeremiah speaks, saying:[3] "Can a maid forget her
ornaments, or a bride her attire." Concerning her we read of a great miracle
in the same prophecy[4]--that a woman should compass a man, and that the Father
of all things should be contained in a virgin's womb.

33. "Granted, "says Jovinianus," that there is a difference
between marriage and virginity, what have you to say to this,--Suppose a virgin
and a widow were baptized, and continued as they were, what difference will
there be between them?" What we have already said concerning Peter and
John, Anna and Mary, may be of service here. For if there is no difference
between a virgin and a widow, both being baptized, because baptism makes a
new man, upon the same principle harlots and prostitutes, if they are baptized,
will be equal to virgins. If previous marriage is no prejudice to a baptized
widow, and past pleasures and the exposure of their bodies to public lust are
no detriment in the case of harlots, once they have approached the layer they
will gain the rewards of virginity. It is one thing to unite with God a mind
pure and free from any stain of memory, another to remember the foul and forced
embraces of a man, and in recollection to act a part which you do not in person.
Jeremiah, who was[1] sanctified in the womb, and was known in his mother's
belly, enjoyed the high privilege Because he was predestined to the blessing
of virginity. And when all were captured, and even the vessels of the temple
were plundered by the King of Babylon, he alone was[2] liberated by the enemy,
knew not the insults of captivity, and was supported by the conquerors; and
Nebuchadnezzar, though he gave Nebuzaradan no charge concerning the Holy of
Holies, did give him charge concerning Jeremiah. For that is the true temple
of God, and that is the Holy of Holies, which is consecrated to the Lord by
pure virginity. On the other hand, Ezekiel, who was kept captive in Babylon,
who saw the[3] storm approaching from the north, and the whirlwind sweeping
all before it, says,[4] "My wife died in the evening and I did in the
morning as I was commanded." For the Lord had previously told him that
in that day he should open his mouth, and speak, and no longer keep silence.
Mark well, that while his wife was living he was not at liberty to admonish
the people. His wife died, the bond of wedlock was broken, and without the
least hesitation he constantly devoted himself to the prophetic office. For
he who was called being free, is truly the Lord's bondservant. I do not deny
the blessedness of widows who remain such after their baptism; nor do I disparage
those wives who maintain their chastity in wedlock; but as they attain a greater
reward with God than married women who pay the marriage due, let widows themselves
the content to give the preference to virginity. For if a chastity which comes
too late, when the glow of bodily pleasure is no longer felt, makes them feel
superior to married women, why should they not acknowledge themselves inferior
to perpetual virginity.

34. All
that goes for nothing, says Jovinianus, because even bishops, priests, and
deacons, husbands
of
one wife, and having children, were appointed by the
Apostle. Just as the Apostle[5] says he has no commandment respecting virgins,
and yet gives his advice, as one who had obtained mercy from the Lord, and
is anxious throughout the whole discussion to give virginity the preference
over marriage, and advises what he does not venture to command, lest he seem
to lay a snare, and to put a heavier burden upon man's nature than it can bear;
so also in establishing the constitution of the Church, inasmuch as the elements
of the early Church were drawn from the Gentiles, he made the rules for fresh
believers somewhat lighter that they might not in alarm shrink from keeping
them. Then, again, the Apostles and elders wrote[1] letters from Jerusalem
that no heavier burden should be laid on Gentile believers than that they should
keep themselves from idolatry, and from fornication, and from things strangled.
As though they were providing for infant children, they gave them milk to drink,
not solid food. Nor did they lay down rules for continence, nor hint at virginity,
nor urge to fasting, nor repeat the directions[2] given in the Gospel to the
Apostles, not to have two tunics, nor scrip, nor money in their girdles, nor
staff in their hand, nor shoes on their feet. And they certainly did not bid
them,[3] if they wished to be perfect, go and sell all that they had and give
to the poor, and "come follow me." For if the young man who boasted
of having done all that the law enjoins, when he heard this went away sorrowful,
because he had great possessions, and the Pharisees derided an utterance such
as this from our Lord's lips: how much more would the vast multitude of Gentiles,
whose highest virtue consisted in not plundering another's goods, have repudiated
the obligation of perpetual chastity and continence, when they were told in
the letter to keep themselves from idols, and from fornication, seeing that
fornication was heard of among them, and such fornication as was not "even
among the Gentiles." But the very choice of a bishop makes for me. For
he does not say: Let a bishop be chosen who marries one wife and begets children;
but who marries one wife, and[4] has his children in subjection and well disciplined.
You surely admit that he is no bishop who during his episcopate begets children.
The reverse is the case--if he be discovered, he will not be bound by the ordinary
obligations of a husband, but will be condemned as an adulterer. Either permit[5]
priests to perform the work of marriage with the result that virginity and
marriage are on a par: or if it is unlawful for priests to touch their wives,
they are so far holy in that they imitate virgin chastity. But something more
follows. A layman, or any believer, cannot pray unless he abstain from sexual
intercourse. Now a priest must always offer sacrifices for the people: he must
therefore always pray. And if he must always pray, he must always be released
from the duties of marriage. For even under the old law they who used to offer
sacrifices for the people not only remained in their houses, but purified themselves
for the occasion by separating from their wives, nor would they drink wine
or strong drink which are wont to stimulate lust. That married men are elected
to the priesthood, I do not deny: the number of virgins is not so great as
that of the priests required. Does it follow that because all the strongest
men are chosen for the army, weaker men should not be taken as well? All cannot
be strong. If an army were constituted of strength only, and numbers went for
nothing, the feebler men might be rejected. As it is, men of second or third-rate
strength are chosen, that the army may have its full numerical complement.
How is it, then, you will say, that frequently at the ordination of priests
a virgin is passed over, and a married man taken? Perhaps because he lacks
other qualifications in keeping with virginity, or it may be that he is thought
a virgin, and is not: or there may be a stigma on his virginity, or at all
events virginity itself makes him proud, and while he plumes himself on mere
bodily chastity, he neglects other virtues; he does not cherish the poor: he
is too fond of money. It sometimes happens that a man has a gloomy visage,
a frowning brow, a walk as though he were in a solemn procession, and so offends
the people, who, because they have no fault to find with his life, hate his
mere dress and gait. Many are chosen not out of affection for themselves, but
out of hatred for another. In most cases the election is won by mere simplicity,
while the shrewdness and discretion of another candidate elicit opposition
as though they were evils. Sometimes the judgement of the commoner people is
at fault, and in testing the qualities of the priesthood, the individual inclines
to his own character, with the result that he looks not so much for a good
candidate as for one like himself. Not unfrequently it happens that married
men, who form the larger portion of the people, in approving married candidates
seem to approve themselves, and it does not occur to them that the mere fact
that they prefer a married person to a virgin is evidence of their inferiority
to virgins. What I am going to say will perhaps offend many. Yet I will say
it, and good men will not be angry with me, because they will not feel the
sting of conscience. Sometimes it is the fault of the bishops, who choose into
the ranks of the clergy not the best, but the cleverest, men, and think the
more simple as well as innocent ones incapable; or, as though they were distributing
the offices of an earthly service, they give posts to their kindred and relations;
or they listen to the dictates of wealth. And, worse than all, they give promotion
to the clergy who besmear them with flattery. To take the other view, if the
Apostle's meaning be that marriage is necessary in a bishop, the Apostle himself
ought not to have been a bishop, for he said,[1] "Yet I would that all
men were even as I myself." And John will be thought unworthy of this
rank, and all the virgins, and the continent, the fairest gems that give grace
and ornament to the Church. Bishop, priest, and deacon, are not honourable
distinctions, but names of offices. And we do not read:[2] " If a man
seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good degree," but, "he
desireth a good work," because by being placed in the higher order an
opportunity is afforded him, if he choose to avail himself of it, for the practice
of virtue.

35. "The bishop, then, must be without reproach, so that he is the slave
of no vice: "the husband of one wife," that is, in the past, not
in the present; "sober," or[3] better, as it is in the Greek, "vigilant," that
is <greek>nhfaleon</greek>; "chaste," for that is the[4]
meaning of <greek>swfrona</greek>;[5] "distinguished," both
by chastity and conduct: "hospitable," so that he imitates Abraham,
and with strangers, nay rather in strangers, entertains Christ; "apt to
teach," for it profits nothing to enjoy the consciousness of virtue, unless
a man be able to instruct the people intrusted to him, so that he can exhort
in doctrine, and refute the gainsayers;[6] "not a drunkard," for
he who is constantly in the Holy of Holies and offers sacrifices, will not
drink wine and strong drink, since wine is a luxury. If a bishop drink at all,
let it be in such a way that no one will know whether he has drunk or not. "No
striker," that is,[7] a striker of men's consciences, for the Apostle
is not pointing out what a boxer, but a pontiff ought not to do. He directly
teaches what he ought to do: "but gentle, not contentious, no lover of
money, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection
with all chastity." See what chastity is required in a bishop ! If his
child be unchaste, he himself cannot be a bishop, and he offends God in the
same way as did[1] Eli the priest, who had indeed rebuked his sons, but because
he had not put away the offenders, fell backwards and died before the lamp
of God went out.[2] "Women in like manner must be chaste," and so
on. In every grade, and in both sexes, chastity has the chief place. You see
then that the blessedness of a bishop, priest, or deacon, does not lie in the
fact that they are bishops, priests, or deacons, but in their having the virtues
which their names and offices imply. Otherwise, if a deacon be holier than
his bishop, his lower grade will not give him a worse standing with Christ.
If it were so, Stephen the deacon, the first to wear the martyr's crown, would
be less in the kingdom of heaven than many bishops, and than Timothy and Titus,
whom I venture to make neither inferior nor yet superior to him. Just as in
the legions of the army there are generals, tribunes, centurions, javelin-men,
and light-armed troops, common soldiers, and companies, but once the battle
begins, all distinctions of rank are dropped, and the one thing looked for
is valour: so too in this camp and in this battle, in which we contend against
devils, not names but deeds are needed: and under the true commander, Christ,
not the man who has the highest title has the greatest fame, but he who is
the bravest warrior.

36. But
you will say: "If everybody were a virgin, what would become
of the human race"? Like shall here beget like. If everyone were a widow,
or continent in marriage, how will mortal men be propagated? Upon this principle
there will be nothing at all for fear that something else may cease to exist.
To put a case: if all men were philosophers, there would be no husbandmen.
Why speak of husbandmen? there would be no orators, no lawyers, no teachers
of the other professions. If all men were leaders, what would become of the
soldiers? If all were the head, whose head would they be called, when there
were no other members? You are afraid that if the desire for virginity were
general there would be no prostitutes, no adulteresses, no wailing infants
in town or country. Every day the blood of adulterers[3] is shed, adulterers
are condemned, and lust is raging and rampant in the very presence of the laws
and the symbols of authority and the courts of justice. Be not afraid that
all will become virgins: virginity is a hard matter, and therefore rare, because
it is hard: "Many are called, few chosen." Many begin, few persevere.
And so the reward is great for those who have persevered. If all were able
to be virgins, our Lord would never have said:[1] " He that is able to
receive it, let him receive it:" and the Apostle would not have hesitated
to give his advice,--[2] " Now concerning virgins I have no commandment
of the Lord." Why then, you will say, were the organs of generation created,
and why were we so fashioned by the all-wise creator, that we burn for one
another, and long for natural intercourse? To reply is to endanger our modesty:
we are, as it were, between two rocks, the[3] Symplegades of necessity and
virtue, on either side; and must make shipwreck of either our sense of shame,
or of the cause we defend: If we reply to your suggestions, shame covers our
face. If shame secures silence, in a manner we seem to desert our post, and
to leave the ground clear to the raging foe. Yet it is better, as the story
goes, to shut our eyes and fight like the[4] blindfold gladiators, than not
to repel with the shield of truth the darts aimed at us. I can indeed say: "Our
hinder parts which are banished from sight, and the lower portions of the abdomen,
which perform the functions of nature, are the Creator's work." But inasmuch
as the physical conformation of the organs of generation testifies to difference
of sex, I shall briefly reply: Are we never then to forego lust, for fear that
we may have members of this kind for nothing? Why then should a husband keep
himself from his wife? Why should a widow persevere in chastity, if we were
only born to live like beasts? Or what harm does it do me if another man lies
with my wife? For as the teeth were made for chewing, and the food masticated
passes into the stomach, and a man is not blamed for giving my wife bread:
similarly if it was intended that the organs of generation should always be
performing their office, when my vigour is spent let another take my place,
and, if I may so speak, let my wife quench her burning lust where she can.
But what does the Apostle mean by exhorting to continence, if continence be
contrary to nature? What does our Lord mean when He instructs us in the various
kinds of eunuchs.[5] Surely[6] the Apostle who bids us emulate his own chastity,
must be asked, if we are to be consistent, Why are you like other men, Paul?
Why are you distinguished from the female sex by a beard, hair, and other peculiarities
of person? How is it that you have not swelling bosoms, and are not broad at
the hips, narrow at the chest? Your voice is rugged, your speech rough, your
eyebrows more shaggy. To no purpose you have all these manly qualities, if
you forego the embraces of women. I am compelled to say something and become
a fool: but you have forced me to dare to speak. Our Lord and Saviour,[1] Who
though He was in the form of God, condescended to take the form of a servant,
and became obedient to the Father even unto death, yea the death of the cross--what
necessity was there for Him to be born with members which He was not going
to use? He certainly was circumcised to manifest His sex. Why did he cause
John the Apostle and John the Baptist to make themselves eunuchs through love
of Him, after causing them to be born men? Let us then who believe in Christ
follow His example. And if we knew Him after the flesh, let us no longer know
Him according to the flesh. The substance of our resurrection bodies will certainly
be the same as now, though of higher glory. For the Saviour after His descent
into hell had so far the selfsame body in which He was crucified, that[2] He
showed the disciples the marks of the nails in His hands and the wound in His
side. Moreover, if we deny the identity of His body because[3] He entered though
the doors were shut, and this is not a property of human bodies, we must deny
also that Peter and the Lord had real bodies because they[4] walked upon the
water, which is contrary to nature.[5] " In the resurrection of the dead
they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels." What
others will hereafter be in heaven, that virgins begin to be on earth. If likeness
to the angels is promised us (and there is no difference of sex among the angels),
we shall either be of no sex as are the angels, or at all events which is clearly
proved, though we rise from the dead in our own sex, we shall not perform the
functions of sex.

37. But
why do we argue, and why are we eager to frame a clever and victorious reply
to our opponent?[6] "Old things have passed away, behold all things
have become new." I will run through the utterances of the Apostles, and
as to the instances afforded by Solomon I added short expositions to facilitate
their being understood, so now I will go over the passages bearing on Christian
purity and continence, and will make of many proofs a connected series. By
this method I shall succeed in omitting nothing relating to chastity, and shall
avoid being tediously long. Amongst other passages, Paul the Apostle writes
to the Romans:[1] "What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof
ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made
free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification,
and the end eternal life." I suppose too that the end of marriage is death.
But the compensating fruit of sanctification, fruit belonging either to virginity
or to continence, is eternal life. And afterwards:[2] "Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should
be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might
bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions,
which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto
death. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein
we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness
of the letter." "When," he says, "we were in the flesh,
and not in the newness of the Spirit but in the oldness of the letter," we
did those things which pertained to the flesh, and bore fruit unto death. But
now because we are dead to the law, through the body of Christ, let us bear
fruit to God, that we may belong to Him who rose from the dead. And elsewhere,
having previously said,[3] "I know that the law is spiritual," and
having discussed at some length the violence of the flesh which frequently
drives us to do what we would not, he at last continues: "O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord." And again, "So then I myself with
the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." And,[4] "There
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made
me free from the law of sin and death." And more clearly in what follows
he teaches that Christians do not walk according to the flesh but according
to the Spirit:[5] "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh; but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit.
For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the spirit is life and
peace: because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can it be: and they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you," and so on to where he says,[1] "So
then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh:
for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the spirit ye mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, these are sons of God." If the[2] wisdom of the flesh is enmity
against God, and they who are in the flesh cannot please God, I think that
they who perform the functions of marriage love the wisdom of the flesh, and
therefore are in the flesh. The Apostle being desirous to withdraw us from
the flesh and to join us to the Spirit, says afterwards:[3] " I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be
not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but
to think according to chastity "[4] (not soberly as the Latin versions
badly render), but "think," he says, "according to chastity," for
the Greek words are <greek>eis</greek> <greek>to</greek> <greek>swfronein</greek>.
Let us consider what the Apostle says: "Be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." What he says is something like this--God indeed permits
marriage, He permits second marriages, and if necessary, prefers even third
marriages to fornication and adultery. But we who ought to present our bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service,
should consider, not what God permits, but what He wishes: that we may prove
what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It follows that what
He merely permits is neither good, nor acceptable, nor perfect. And he gives
his reasons for this advice:[5] "Knowing the season, that now it is high
time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than
when we first believed. The night is far spent, and the day is at hand." And
lastly:" Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the
flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." God's will is one thing, His indulgence
another. Whence, writing to the Corinthians, he says,[1] "I, brethren,
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto
ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal." He
who[2] is in the merely animal state, and does not receive the things pertaining
to the Spirit of God (for he is foolish, and cannot understand them, because
they are spiritually discerned), he is not fed with the food of perfect chastity,
but with the coarse milk of marriage. As through man came death, so also through
man came the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam we all die, so in Christ
we shall all be made alive. Under the law we served the old Adam, under the
Gospel let us serve the new Adam. For the first man Adam was made a living
soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.[3] "The first man is
of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are
they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." This
is so clear that no explanation can make it clearer: "Flesh and blood," he
says, "cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption." If corruption attaches to all intercourse, and incorruption
is characteristic of chastity, the rewards of chastity cannot belong to marriage.[4] "For
we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have
a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.
For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation
which is from heaven. We are willing to be absent from the body, and to be
at home with the Lord. Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether in the body,
or out of the body, to be well-pleasing unto God." And by way of more
fully explaining what he did not wish them to be he says elsewhere:[5] "I
espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ." But
if you choose to apply the words to the whole Assembly of believers, and in
this betrothal to Christ include both married women, and the twice-married,
and widows, and virgins, that also makes for us. For whilst he invites all
to chastity and to the reward of virginity, he shows that virginity is more
excellent than all these conditions. And again writing to the Galatians he
says:[1] "Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Among
the works of the law is marriage, and accordingly under it they are cursed
who have no children. And if under the Gospel it is permitted to have children,
it is one thing to make a concession to weakness another to hold out rewards
to virtue.

38. Something
else I will say to my friends who marry and after long chastity and continence
begin
to burn
and are as wanton as the brutes :[2] "Are
ye so foolish ? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh
? Did ye suffer so many things in vain ?" If the Apostle in the case of
some persons loosens the cords of continence, and lets them have a slack rein,
he does so on account of the infirmity of the flesh. This is the enemy he has
in view when he once more says :[3] "Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh." It is unnecessary now to speak of the
works of the flesh: it would be tedious, and he who chooses can easily gather
them from the letter of the Apostle. I will only speak of the Spirit and its
fruits, love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness,[4] continence. All the virtues of the Spirit are supported and protected
by continence, which is as it were their solid foundation and crowning point.
Against such there is no law.[5] "And they that are of Christ have crucified
their flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. If we live by the Spirit,
by the Spirit let us also walk." Why do we who with Christ have crucified
our flesh and its passions and desires again desire to do the things of the
flesh?[6] "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that
soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that
soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life." I think
that he who has a wife, so long as he reverts to the practice in question,
that Satan may not tempt him, is sowing to the flesh and not to the Spirit.
And he who sows to the flesh (the words are not mine, but the Apostle's) reaps
corruption. God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that we might be holy and without spot before Him.[1] We walked in the
lusts of the flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and
were children of wrath, even as the rest. But now He has raised us up with
Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,[2]
that we may put away according to our former manner of life the old man, which
is corrupt according to the lusts of deceit, and that blessing may be applied
to us which so finely concludes the mystical Epistle to the Ephesians: 3 " Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness."[4] " For
our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may
be conformed to the body of his glory.[5] Whatsoever things then are true,
whatsoever are chaste, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things pertain
to purity, let us join ourselves to these, let us follow these.[6] Christ hath
reconciled us in his body to God the Father through his death, and has presented
us holy and without spot, and without blame before himself: in whom we have
been also circumcised, not with the circumcision made with hands, to the spoiling
of the body of the flesh, but with the circumcision of Christ, having been
buried with him in baptism, wherein also we rose with him. If then we have
risen with Christ, let us seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God; let us set our affections on things above, not upon
the things that are upon the earth. For we are dead, and our life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ our life shall appear, then we also shall appear
with him in glory.[7] No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs
of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.[8] For
the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing
us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
purely and righteously and godly in this present world."

39. The
day would not be long enough were I to attempt to relate all that the Apostle
enjoins concerning
purity.
These things are those concerning which
our Lord said to the Apostles :[9] "I have yet many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he shall guide you into all the truth." After the crucifixion of
Christ, we find in the[10] Acts of the Apostles that one house, that of Philip
the Evangelist, produced four virgin daughters, to the end that Caesarea, where
the Gentile Church had been consecrated in the person of Cornelius the centurion,
might afford an illustration of virginity. And whereas our Lord said in the
Gospel:[1] "The law and the prophets were until John," they because
they were virgins are related to have prophesied even after John. For they
could not be bound by the law of the Old Testament, who had shone with the
brightness of virginity. Let us pass on to James, who was called the brother
of the Lord, a man of such sanctity and righteousness, and distinguished by
so rigid and perpetual a virginity, that even[2] Josephus, the Jewish historian,
relates that the overthrow of Jerusalem was due to his death. He, the first
bishop of the Church at Jerusalem, which was composed of Jewish believers,
to whom Paul went, accompanied by Titus and Barnabas, says in his Epistle:[3] "Be
not deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect boon is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights,[4] with whom there is no
difference, neither shadow that is cast by turning. Of his own will he brought
us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of
his creatures." Himself a virgin, he teaches virginity in a mystery. Every
perfect gift cometh down from above, where marriage is unknown; and it cometh
down, not from any one you please, but from the Father of lights, Who says
to the apostles, "Ye are the light of the world;" with Whom there
is no difference of Jew, or Gentile, nor does that shadow which was the companion
of the law, trouble those who have believed from among the nations; but with
His word He begat us, and with the word of truth, because some shadow, image,
and likeness of truth went before in the law, that we might be the first-fruits
of His creatures. And as He who was Himself the[5] first begotten from the
dead has raised all that have died in Him: so He who was a virgin, consecrated
the first-fruits of His virgins in His own virgin self. Let us also consider
what Peter thinks of the calling of the Gentiles:[6] " Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat
us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith
unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Where we read
of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, prepared
in heaven and reserved for the last time, and of the hope of eternal life when
they will neither marry, nor be given in marriage, there, in other words, the
privileges of virginity are described. For he shows as much in what follows:[1] "Wherefore
girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on
the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former
lusts in the time of your ignorance; but like as he which called you is holy,
be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written,
ye shall be holy; for I am holy.[2] For we were not redeemed with contemptible
things, with silver or gold; but with the precious blood of a lamb without
spot, Jesus Christ,[3] that we might purify our souls in obedience to the truth,
having been begotten again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through
the word of God,[4] who liveth and abideth. And as living stones let us be
built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices
through Christ our Lord.[5] For we are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a people for God's own possession.[6] Christ died for us in the
flesh. Let us arm ourselves with the same conversation as did Christ; for he
that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that we should no longer
live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will
of God. For the time past is sufficient for us when we walked in lasciviousness,
lusts, and other vices. Great and precious are the promises attaching to virginity
which He has given us,[7] that through it we may become partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust.[8]
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the
unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgement, but chiefly them that
walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion, daring,
self-willed. For they, as beasts of burden, without reason, think only of their
belly and their lusts, railers who shall in their corruption be destroyed,
and shall receive the reward of iniquity: men that count unrighteousness delight,
spots and blemishes, thinking of nothing but their pleasures; having eyes full
of adultery and insatiable lust, deceiving souls not yet strengthened by the
love of Christ. For they utter swelling words and easily snare the unlearned
with the seduction of the flesh; promising them liberty while they themselves
are the slaves of vice, luxury, and corruption. For of what a man is overcome,
of the same is he also brought into bondage. But if, after they had escaped
the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
they are again overcome by that which they before overcame, the last state
is become worse with them than the first. And it were better for them not to
have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back and
forsake the holy commandment delivered unto them. And it has happened unto
them according to the true proverb, the dog hath turned to his own vomit again,
and the sow that had washed to wallowing in the mire." I have hesitated,
for fear of being tedious, to quote the whole passage of the second Epistle
of Peter, and have merely shown that the Holy Spirit in prophecy foretold the
teachers of this time and their heresy. Lastly, he more clearly denotes them,
saying,[1] "In the last days seducing mockers shall come, walking after
their own lusts."

40. The
Apostle has described Jovinianus speaking with swelling cheeks and nicely
balancing his inflated
utterances,
promising heavenly liberty, when
he himself is the slave of vice and self-indulgence, a dog returning to his
vomit. For although he boasts of being a monk, he has exchanged his dirty tunic,
bare feet, common bread, and drink of water, for a snowy dress, sleek skin,
honey-wine and dainty dishes, for the sauces of[2] Apicius and[3] Paxamus,
for baths and rubbings, and for the cook-shops. Is it not clear that he prefers
his belly to Christ, and thinks his ruddy complexion worth the kingdom of heaven?
And yet that handsome monk so fat and sleek, and of bright appearance, who
always walks with the air of a bridegroom, must either marry a wife if he is
to show that virginity and marriage are equal: or if he does not marry one,
it is useless for him to bandy words with us when his acts are on our side.
And John agrees with this almost to the letter:[4] "Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of this life, which is not of
the Father, but is of the world." And, "The world passeth away, and
the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. A new
commandment have I written unto you, which thing is true both in Christ and
in you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already shineth." And
again,[1] " Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet
made manifest what we shall be. But we know that, if he shall be manifested,
we shall be like him: for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that
hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure.[2] Herein is our love
made perfect, if we have boldness in the day of judgement: that as he is, even
so may we be in this world." The Epistle of Jude also expresses nearly
the same:[3] "Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." Let
us read the Apocalypse of John, and we shall there find the Lamb upon Mount
Sion,[4] and with Him "a hundred and forty-four thousand of them that
were sealed, having His name and the name of His Father written in their foreheads,
who sing a new song, and no one can sing that song save they who have been
redeemed out of the earth. These are they who have not defiled themselves with
women, for they continued virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth:
for they were redeemed from among men, first-fruits to God and to the Lamb,
and in their mouth was found no guile, and they are without spot." Out
of each tribe, the tribe of Dan excepted, the place of which is taken by the
tribe of Levi, twelve thousand virgins who have been sealed are spoken of as
future believers, who have not defiled themselves with women. And that we may
not suppose the reference to be to those who know not harlots, he immediately
added: "For they continued virgins." Whereby he shows that all who
have not preserved their virginity, in comparison of pure and angelic chastity
and of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, are defiled.[6] " These are they
who sing a new song which no man can sing except him that is a virgin. These
are first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb, and are without blemish." If
virgins are first-fruits, it follows that widows and the continent in marriage,
come after the first-fruits, that is, are in the second and third rank: nor
can a lost people be saved unless it offer such sacrifices of chastity to God,
and with pure victims reconcile the spotless Lamb. It would be endless work
to explain the Gospel mystery of the ten virgins, five of whom were wise and
five foolish. All I say now is, that as mere virginity without other works
does not save, so all works without virginity, purity, continence, chastity,
are imperfect. And we shall not be hindered in the least from taking this view
by the objection of our opponent that our Lord was at Cana of Galilee, and
joined in the marriage festivities when He turned water into wine. I shall
very briefly reply, that He Who was circumcised on the eighth day, and for
Whom a pair of turtle-doves and two young pigeons were offered on the day of
purification, like others before He suffered, shewed His approval of Jewish
custom, that He might not seem to give His enemies just cause for putting Him
to death on the pretext that He destroyed the law and condemned nature. And
even this was done for our sakes. For by going once to a marriage, He taught
that men should marry only once. Moreover, at that time it was possible to
injure virginity if marriage were not placed next to it, and the purity of
widowhood in the third rank. But now when heretics are condemning wedlock,
and despise the ordinance of God, we gladly hear anything he[1] may say in
praise of marriage. For the Church does not condemn marriage, but makes it
subordinate; nor does she reject it, but regulates it; for she knows, as was
said before, that[2] in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and
silver, but also of wood and earthenware; and that some are to honour, some
to dishonour; and that whoever cleanses himself will be a vessel of honour,
necessary, prepared for every good work.

41. I
have given enough and more than enough illustrations from the divine writings
of Christian
chastity
and angelic virginity. But as I understand that
our opponent in his commentaries summons us to the tribunal of worldly wisdom,
and we are told that views of this kind are never accepted in the world, and
that our religion has invented a dogma against nature, I will quickly run through
Greek and Roman and Foreign History, and will show that virginity ever took
the lead of chastity. Fable relates that Atalanta, the virgin of Calydonian
fame, lived for the chase and dwelt always in the woods; in other words that
she did not set her heart on marriage with its troubles of pregnancy and of
sickness, but upon the nobler life of freedom and chastity. [3] Harpalyce too,
a Thracian virgin, is described by the famous poet; and so is[4] Camilia, queen
of the Volsci, on whom, when she came to his assistance, Turnus had no higher
praise which he could bestow than to call her a virgin. "O Virgin, Glory
of Italy!" And that famous daughter of[1] Leos, the lady of the brazen
house, ever a virgin, is related to have freed her country from pestilence
by her voluntary death: and the blood of the virgin[2] Iphigenia is said to
have calmed the stormy winds. What need to tell of the Sibyls of Erythrae and
Cum, and the eight others? for Varro asserts there were ten whose ornament
was virginity, and divination the reward of their virginity. But if in the
olian dialect "Sibyl" is represented by <greek>Qeoboulh</greek>,
we must understand that a knowledge of the Counsel of God is rightly attributed
to virginity alone. We read, too, that Cassandra and Chryseis, prophetesses
of Apollo and Juno, were virgins. And there were innumerable priestesses of
the Taurian Diana, and of Vesta. One of these, Munitia, being suspected of
unchastily was[3] buried alive, which would be in my opinion an unjust punishment,
unless the violation of virginity were considered a serious crime. At all events
how highly the Romans always esteemed virgins is clear from the fact that consuls
and generals even in their triumphal chariots and bringing home the spoils
of conquered nations, were wont to make way for them to pass. And so did men
of all ranks. When[4] Claudia, a Vestal Virgin, was suspected of unchastily,
and a vessel containing the image of Cybele was aground in the Tiber, it is
related that she, to prove her chastity, with her girdle drew the ship which
a thousand men could not move. Yet, as[5] the uncle of Lucan the poet says,
it would have been better if this circumstance had decorated a chastity tried
and proved, and had not pleaded in defence of a chastity equivocal. No wonder
that we read such things of human beings, when heathen error also invented
the virgin goddesses Minerva and Diana, and placed the Virgin among the twelve
signs of the Zodiac, by means of which, as they suppose, the world revolves.
It is a proof of the little esteem in which they held marriage that they did
not even among the scorpions, centaurs, crabs, fishes, and capricorn, thrust
in a husband and wife. When the thirty tyrants of Athens had slain Phidon at
the banquet, they commanded his virgin daughters to come to them, naked like
harlots, and there upon the ground, red with their father's blood, to act the
wanton. For a little while they hid their grief, and then when they saw the
revellers were intoxicated, going out on the plea of casing nature, they embraced
one another and threw themselves into a well, that by death they might save
their virginity. The virgin daughter of Demotion, chief of the Areopagites,
having heard of the death of her betrothed,[1] Leosthenes, who had originated
the Lamian war, slew herself, for she declared that although in body she was
a virgin, yet if she were compelled to: accept another, she should regard him
as her second husband, when she had given her heart to Leosthenes. So close
a friendship long existed between Sparta and Messene that for the furtherance
of certain religious rites they even exchanged virgins. Well, on one occasion
when the men of Messene attempted to outrage fifty Lacedmonian virgins, out
of so many not one consented, but they all most gladly died in defence of their
chastity. Whence there arose a long and grievous war, and in the long run[2]
Mamertina was destroyed. Aristoclides, tyrant of Orchomenos, fell in love with
a virgin of Stymphalus, and when after the death of her father she took refuge
in the temple of Diana, and embraced the image of the goddess and could not
be dragged thence by force, she was slain on the spot. Her death caused such
intense grief throughout Arcadia that the people took up arms and avenged the
virgin's death.[3] Aristomenes of Messene, a just man, at a time when the Lacedmonians,
whom he had conquered, were celebrating by night the festival called the[4]
Hyacinthia, carried off from the sportive bands fifteen virgins, and fleeing
all night at full speed got away from the Spartan territory. His companions
wished to outrage them, but he admonished them to the best of his power not
to do so, and when certain refused to obey, he slew them, and restrained the
rest by fear. The maidens were afterwards ransomed by their kinsmen, and on
seeing Aristomenes condemned for murder would not return to their country until
clasping the knees of the judges they beheld the protector of their chastity
acquitted. How shall we sufficiently praise the daughters of Scedasus at Leuctra
in Boeotia? It is related that in the absence of their father they hospitably
entertained two youths who were passing by, and who having drunk to excess
violated the virgins in the course of the flight. Being unwilling to survive
the loss of their virginity, the maidens inflicted deadly wounds on one another.
Nor would it be right to omit mention of the Locrian virgins. They were sent
to Ilium according to custom which had lasted for nearly a thousand years,
and yet not one gave occasion to any idle tale or filthy rumour of virginity
defiled. Could any one pass over in silence the seven virgins of Miletus who,
when the Gauls spread desolation far and wide, that they might suffer no indignity
at the hands of the enemy, escaped disgrace by death, and left to all virgins
the lesson of their example--that noble minds care more for chastity than life?
Nicanor having conquered and overthrown Thebes was himself overcome by a passion
for one captive virgin, whose voluntary self-surrender he longed for. A captive
maid, he thought, must be only too glad. But he found that virginity is dearer
to the pure in heart than a kingdom, when with tears and grief he held her
in his arms slain by her own hand. Greek writers tell also of another Theban
virgin who had been deflowered by a Macedonian foe, and who, hiding her grief
for a while, slew the violator of her virginity as he slept, and then killed
herself with the sword, so that she would neither live when her chastity was
lost, nor die before she had avenged herself.

42. To
come to the Gymnosophists of india, the opinion is authoritatively handed
down that Budda, the founder
of their religion, had his birth through
the side of a virgin. And we need not wonder at this in the case of Barbarians
when cultured Greece supposed that Minerva at her birth sprang from the head
of Jove, and Father Bacchus from his thigh.[1] Speusippus also, Plato's nephew,
and[2] "Clearchus in his eulogy of Plato, and[3] Anaxelides in the second
book of his philosophy, relates that Perictione, the mother of Plato, was violated
by an apparition of Apollo, and they agree in thinking that the prince of wisdom
was born of a virgin.[1] Timus writes that the[2] virgin daughter of[3] Pythagoras
was at the head of a band of virgins, and instructed them in chastity.[4] Diodorus,
the disciple of Socrates, is said to have had five daughters skilled in dialectics
and distinguished for chastity, of whom a full account is given by Philo the
master of[5] Carneades. And mighty Rome cannot taunt us as though we had invented
the story of the birth of our Lord and Saviour from a virgin; for the Romans
believe that the founders of their city and race were the offspring of the
virgin[6] Ilia and of Mars.

43. Let
these allusions to the virgins of the world, brief and hastily gathered from
many histories,
now
suffice. I will proceed to married women who were
reluctant to survive the decease or violent death of their husbands for fear
they might be forced into a second marriage, and who entertained a marvellous
affection for the only husbands they had. This may teach us that second marriage
was repudiated among the heathen. Dido, the sister of Pygmalion, having collected
a vast amount of gold and silver, sailed to Africa, and there built Carthage.
And when her hand was sought in marriage by Iarbas, king of Libya, she deferred
the marriage for a while until her country was settled. Not long after, having
raised a[7] funeral pyre to the memory of her former husband Sichus, she preferred
to "burn rather than to marry." Carthage was built by a woman of
chastity, and its end was a tribute to the excellence of the virtue. For the[1]
wife of Hasdrubal, when the city was captured and set on fire, and she saw
that she could not herself escape capture by the Romans, took her little children
in either hand and leaped into the burning ruins of her house.

44. What need to tell of the wife of[2] Niceratus, who, not enduring to wrong
her husband, inflicted death upon herself rather than subject herself to the
lust of the thirty tyrants whom Lysander had set over conquered Athens?[3]
Artemisia, also, wife of Mausolus, is related to have been distinguished for
chastity. Though she was queen of Caria, and is extolled by great poets and
historians, no higher praise is bestowed upon her than that when her husband
was dead she loved him as much as when he was alive, and built a tomb so great
that even to the present day all costly sepulchres are called after his name,
mausoleums.[4] Teuta, queen of the Illyrians, owed her long sway over brave
warriors, and her frequent victories over Rome, to her marvellous chastity.
The Indians and almost all the Barbarians have a plurality of wives. It is
a law with them that the favourite wife must be burned with her dead husband.
The wives therefore vie with one another for the husband's love, and the highest
ambition of the rivals, and the proof of chastity, is to be considered worthy
of death. So then she that is victorious, having put on her former dress and
ornaments, lies down beside the corpse, embracing and kissing it, and to the
glory of chastity despises the flames which are burning beneath her. I suppose
that she who dies thus, wants no second marriage. The famous Alcibiades, the
friend of Socrates, when Athens was conquered, fled to Pharnabazus, who took
a bribe from Lysander the Lacedmonian leader and ordered him to be slain. He
was strangled, and when his head had been cut off it was sent to Lysander as
proof of the murder, but the rest of his body lay unburied. His concubine,
therefore, all alone, in defiance of the command of the cruel enemy, in the
midst of strangers, and in the face of peril, gave him due burial, for she
was ready to die for the dead man whom she had loved when living. Let matrons,
Christian matrons at all events, imitate the fidelity of concubines, and exhibit
in their freedom what she in her captivity preserved.

45. Strato, ruler of Sidon, thought of dying by his own hand, that he might
not be the sport of the Persians, who were close by and whose alliance he had
discarded for the friendship of the king of Egypt. But he drew back in terror,
and eying the sword which he had seized, awaited in alarm the approach of the
enemy. His wife, knowing that he must be immediately taken, wrested the weapon
from his hand, and pierced his side. When the body was properly laid out she
lay down upon it in the agony of death, that she might not violate her virgin
troth in the embraces of another.[1] Xenophon, in describing the early years
of the eider Cyrus, relates that when her husband Abradatas was slain, Panthea
who had loved him intensely, placed herself beside the mangled body, then stabbed
herself, and let her blood run into her husband's wounds. The[2] queen whom
the king her husband had shewn naked and without her knowledge to his friend,
thought she had good cause for slaying the king. She judged that she was not
beloved if it was possible for her to be exhibited to another. Rhodogune, daughter
of Darius, after the death of her husband, put to death the nurse who was trying
to persuade her to marry again.[3] Alcestis is related in story to have voluntarily
died for Admetus, and Penelope's chastity is the theme of Homer's song. Laodamia's
praises are also sung by the poets, because, when[4] Protesilaus was slain
at Troy, she refused to survive him.

46. I
may pass on to Roman women; and the first that I shall mention is[5] Lucretia,
who would not survive
her violated chastity, but blotted out the
stain upon her person with her own blood. Duilius, the first Roman who won
a[6] naval triumph, took to wife a virgin, Bilia, of such extraordinary chastity
that she was an example even to an age which held unchastity to be not merely
vicious but monstrous. When he was grown old and feeble he was once in the
course of a quarrel taunted with having bad breath. In dudgeon he betook himself
home, and on complaining to his wife that she had never told him of it so that
he might remedy the fault, he received the reply that she would have done so,
but she thought that all men had foul breath as he had. In either case this
chaste and noble woman deserves praise, whether she was not aware there was
anything wrong with her husband, or if she patiently endured, and her husband
discovered his unfortunate condition not by the disgust of a wife, but by the
abuse of an enemy. At all events the woman who marries a second time cannot
say this. Marcia, Cato's younger daughter, on being asked after the loss of
her husband why she did not marry again, replied that she could not find a
man who wanted her more than her money. Her words teach us that men in choosing
their wives look for riches rather than for chastity, and that many in marrying
use not their eyes but their fingers. That must be an excellent thing which
is won by avarice! When the same lady was mourning the loss of her husband,
and the matrons asked what day would terminate her grief, she replied, "The
same that terminates my life." I imagine that a woman who thus followed
her husband in heart and mind had no thought of marrying again. Porcia, whom
[1] Brutus took to wife, was a virgin; Cato's wife,[2] Marcia, was not a virgin;
but Marcia went to and fro between Hortensius and Cato, and was quite content
to live without Cato; while[3] Porcia could not live without Brutus; for women
attach themselves closely to particular men, and to keep to one is a strong
link in the chain of affection. When a relative urged Annia to marry again
(she was of full age and a goodly person), she answered, "I shall certainly
not do so. For, if I find a good man, I have no wish to be in fear of losing
him: if a bad one, why must I put up with a bad husband after having had a
good one?"[4] Porcia the younger, on hearing a certain lady of good character,
who had a second husband, praised in her house, replied, "A chaste and
happy matron never marries more than once." Marcella the eider, on being
asked by her mother if she was glad she was married, answered, "So much
so that I want nothing more."[5] Valeria, sister of the Messalas, when
she lost her husband Servius, would marry no one else. On being asked why not,
she said that to her, her husband Servius was ever alive.

47. I
feel that in giving this list of women I have said far more than is customary
in illustrating
a point,
and that I might be justly censured by my
learned reader. But what am I to do when the women of our time press me with
apostolic authority, and before the first husband is buried, repeat from morning
to night the precepts which allow a second marriage? Seeing they despise the
fidelity which Christian purity dictates, let them at least learn chastity
from the heathen. A book On Marriage, worth its weight in gold, passes under
the name of[1] Theophrastus. In it the author asks whether a wise man marries.
And after laying down the conditions--that the wife must be fair, of good character,
and honest parentage, the husband in good health and of ample means, and after
saying that under these circumstances a wise man sometimes enters the state
of matrimony, he immediately proceeds thus: "But all these conditions
are seldom satisfied in marriage. A wise man therefore must not take a wife.
For in the first place his study of philosophy will be hindered, and it is
impossible for anyone to attend to his books and his wife. Matrons want many
things, costly dresses, gold, jewels, great outlay, maid-servants, all kinds
of furniture, litters and gilded coaches. Then come curtain-lectures the livelong
night: she complains that one lady goes out better dressed than she: that another
is looked up to by all: 'I am a poor despised nobody at the ladies' assemblies.'
'Why did you ogle that creature next door?' 'Why were you talking to the maid?'
'What did you bring from the market?' 'I am not allowed to have a single friend,
or companion.' She suspects that her husband's love goes the same way as her
hate. There may be in some neighbouring city the wisest of teachers; but if
we have a wife we can neither leave her behind, nor take the burden with us.
To support a poor wife, is hard: to put up with a rich one, is torture. Notice,
too, that in the case of a wife you cannot pick and choose: you must take her
as you find her. If she has a bad temper, or is a fool, if she has a blemish,
or is proud, or has bad breath, whatever her fault may be--all this we learn
after marriage. Horses, asses, cattle, even slaves of the smallest worth, clothes,
kettles, wooden seats, cups, and earthenware pitchers, are first tried and
then bought: a wife is the only thing that is not shown before she is married,
for fear she may not give satisfaction. Our gaze must always be directed to
her face, and we must always praise her beauty: if you look at another woman,
she thinks that she is out of favour. She must be called my lady, her birth-day
must be kept, we must swear by her health and wish that she may survive us,
respect must be paid to the nurse, to the nursemaid, to the father's slave,
to the foster-child, to the handsome hanger-on, to the curled darling who manages
her affairs, and to the eunuch who ministers to the safe indulgence of her
lust: names which are only a cloak for adultery. Upon whomsoever she sets her
heart, they must have her love though they want her not. If you give her the
management of the whole house, you must yourself be her slave. If you reserve
something for yourself, she will not think you are loyal to her; but she will
turn to strife and hatred, and unless you quickly take care, she will have
the poison ready. If you introduce old women, and soothsayers, and prophets,
and vendors of jewels and silken clothing, you imperil her chastity; if you
shut the door upon them, she is injured and fancies you suspect her. But what
is the good of even a careful guardian, when an unchaste wife cannot be watched,
and a chaste one ought not to be? For necessity is but a faithless keeper of
chastity, and she alone really deserves to be called pure, who is free to sin
if she chooses. if a woman be fair, she soon finds lovers; if she be ugly,
it is easy to be wanton. It is difficult to guard what many long for. It is
annoying to have what no one thinks worth possessing. But the misery of having
an ugly wife is less than that of watching a comely one. Nothing is safe, for
which a whole people sighs and longs. One man entices with his figure, another
with his brains, another with his wit, another with his open hand. Somehow,
or sometime, the fortress is captured which is attacked on all sides. Men marry,
indeed, so as to get a manager for the house, to solace weariness, to banish
solitude; but a faithful slave is a far better manager, more submissive to
the master, more observant of his ways, than a wife who thinks she proves herself
mistress if she acts in opposition to her husband, that is, if she does what
pleases her, not what she is commanded. But friends, and servants who are under
the obligation of benefits received, are better able to wait upon us in sickness
than a wife who makes us responsible for her tears (she will sell you enough
to make a deluge for the hope of a legacy), boasts of her anxiety, but drives
her sick husband to the distraction of despair. But if she herself is poorly,
we must fall sick with her and never leave her bedside. Or if she be a good
and agreeable wife (how rare a bird she is!), we have to share her groans in
childbirth, and suffer torture when she is in danger. A wise man can never
be alone. He has with him the good men of all time, and turns his mind freely
wherever he chooses. What is inaccessible to him in person he can embrace in
thought. And, if men are scarce, he converses with God.[1] He is never less
alone than when alone. Then again, to marry for the sake of children, so that
our name may not perish, or that we may have support in old age, and leave
our property without dispute, is the height of stupidity. For what is it to
us when we are leaving the world if another bears our name, when even a son
does not all at once take his father's title, and there are countless others
who are called by the same name. Or what support in old age is he whom you
bring up, and who may die before you, or turn out a reprobate? Or at all events
when he reaches mature age, you may seem to him long in dying. Friends and
relatives whom you can judiciously love are better and safer heirs than those
whom you must make your heirs whether you like it or not. Indeed, the surest
way of having a good heir is to ruin your fortune in a good cause while you
live, not to leave the fruit of your labour to he used you know riot how."

48. When
Theophrastus thus discourses, are there any of us, Christians, whose conversation
is in
heaven and who
daily say[2] "I long to be dissolved,
and to be with Christ," whom he does not put to the blush? Shall a joint-heir
of Christ really long for human heirs? And shall he desire children and delight
himself in a long line of descendants, who will perhaps fall into the clutches
of Antichrist, when we read that[3] Moses and[4] Samuel preferred other men
to their own sons, and did not count as their children those whom they saw
to be displeasing to God? When Cicero after[5] divorcing Terentia was requested
by[6] Hirtius to marry his sister, he[7] set the matter altogether on one side,
and said that he could not possibly devote himself to a wife and to philosophy.
Meanwhile that excellent partner, who had herself drunk wisdom at Tully's fountains,
married[1] Sallust his enemy, and took for her third husband Messala Corvinus,
and thus, as it were, passed through three degrees of eloquence. Socrates had
two wives, Xantippe and Myron, grand-daughter of Aristides. They frequently
quarrelled, and he was accustomed to banter them for disagreeing about him,
he being the ugliest of men, with snub nose, bald forehead, rough-haired, and
bandy-legged. At last they planned an attack upon him, and having punished
him severely, and put him to flight, vexed him for a long time. On one occasion
when he opposed Xantippe; who from above was heaping abuse upon him, the termagant
soused him with dirty water, but he only wiped his head and said, "I knew
that a shower must follow such thunder as that."[2] Metella, consort of
L. Sulla the[3] Fortunate (except in the matter of his wife) was[4] openly
unchaste. It was the common talk of Athens, as I learnt in my youthful years
when we soon pick up what is bad, and yet Sulla was in the dark, and first
got to know the secrets of his household through the abuse of his enemies.
Cn. Pompey had an impure wife[5] Mucia, who was surrounded by eunuchs from
Pontus and troops of the countrymen of Mithridates. Others thought that he
knew all and submitted to it; but a comrade told him during the campaign, and
the conqueror of the whole world was dismayed at the sad intelligence.[6] M.
Cato, the Censor, had a wife Actoria Paula, a woman of low origin, fond of
drink, violent, and (who would believe it?) haughty to Cato. I say this for
fear anyone may suppose that in marrying a poor woman he has secured peace.
When[7] Philip king of Macedon, against whom "Demosthenes thundered in
his Philippics, was entering his bed-room as usual, his wife in a passion shut
him out. Finding himself excluded he held his tongue, and consoled himself
for the insult by reading a tragic poem. [1]Gorgias the Rhetorician recited
his excellent treatise on Concord to the Greeks, then at variance among themselves,
at Olympia. Whereupon [2]Melanthius his enemy observed: "Here is a man
who teaches us concord, and yet could not make concord between himself his
wife, and maid-servant, three persons in one house." The truth was that
his wife envied the beauty of the girl, and drove the purest of men wild with
daily quarrels. Whole tragedies of Euripides are censures on women. Hence Hermione
says,[3] "The counsels of evil women have beguiled me." In the semi-barbarous
and remote city [4]Leptis it is the custom for a daughter-in-law on[5] the
second day to beg the loan of a jar from her mother-in-law. The latter at once
denies the request, and we see how true was the remark of [6]Terence, ambiguously
expressed on purpose--"How is this? do all mothers-in-law hate their daughters-in-law?" We
read of a certain Roman noble who, when his friends found fault with him for
having divorced a wife, beautiful, chaste, and rich, put out his foot and said
to them, "And the shoe before you looks new and elegant, yet no one but
myself knows where it pinches." Herodotus[7] tells us that a woman puts
off her modesty with her clothes. And our own comic poet [8]thinks the man
fortunate who has never been married. Why should I refer to Pasiphae,[9] Clytemnestra,
and Eriphyle, the first of whom, the wife of a king and swimming in pleasure,
is said to have lusted for a bull, the second to have killed her: husband for
the sake of an adulterer, the third to have betrayed Amphiaraus, and to have
preferred a gold necklace to the welfare of her husband. In all the bombast
of tragedy and the overthrow of houses, cities, and kingdoms, it is the wives
and concubines who stir up strife. Parents take up arms against their children:
unspeakable banquets are served: and on account of the rape of one wretched
woman Europe and Asia are involved in a ten years' war. We read of some who
were divorced the day after they were married, and immediately married again.
Both husbands are to blame, both he who was so soon dissatisfied, and he who
was so soon pleased. Epicurus the patron of pleasure (though [1]Metrodorus
his disciple married Leontia) says that a wise man can seldom marry, because
marriage has many drawbacks. And as riches, honours, bodily health, and other
things which we call indifferent, are neither good nor bad, but stand as it
were midway, and become good and bad according to the use and issue, so wives
stand on the border line of good and ill. It is, moreover, a serious matter
for a wise man to be in doubt whether he is going to marry a good or a bad
woman. [2]Chrysippus ridiculously maintains that a wise man should marry, that
he may not outrage Jupiter[3] Gamelius and Genethlius. For upon that principle
the Latins would not marry at all, since they have no Jupiter who presides
over marriage. But if, as he thinks, the life of men is determined by the names
of gods, whoever chooses to sit will offend Jupiter[4] Stator.

49. Aristotle
and Plutarch and our Seneca have written treatises on matrimony, out of which
we have
already
made some extracts and now add a few more. "The
love of beauty is the forgetting of reason and the near neighbour of madness;
a foul blot little in keeping with a sound mind. It confuses counsel, breaks
high and generous spirits, draws away men from great thoughts to mean ones;
it makes men querulous, ill-tempered, foolhardy, cruelly imperious, servile
flatterers, good for nothing, at last not even for love itself. For although
in the intensity of passion it burns like a raging fire, it wastes much time
through suspicions, tears, and complaints: it begets hatred of itself, and
at last hates itself." The course of love is laid bare in Plato's Phaedrus
from beginning to end, and Lysias explains all its drawbacks--how it is led
not by reason, but by frenzy, and in particular is a harsh gaoler over lovely
wives. Seneca, too, relates that he knew an accomplished man who before going
out used to tie his wife's garter upon his breast, and could not bear to be
absent from her for a quarter of an hour; and this pair would never take a
drink unless husband and wife alternately put their lips to the cup; and they
did other things just as absurd in the extravagant outbursts of their warm
but blind affection. Their love was of honourable birth, but it grew out of
all proportion. And it makes no difference how honourable may be the cause
of a man's insanity. Hence [1]Xystus in his Sentences tells us that "He
who too ardently loves his own wife is an adulterer." It is disgraceful
to love another man's wife at all, or one's own too much. A wise man ought
to love his wife with judgment, not with passion. Let a man govern his voluptuous
impulses. and not rush headlong into intercourse. There is nothing blacker
than to love a wife as if she were an adulteress. Men who say they have contracted
marriage and are bringing up children, for the good of their country and of
the race, should at least imitate the brutes, and not destroy their offspring
in the womb; nor should they appear in the character of lovers, but of husbands.
In some cases marriage has grown out of adultery: and, shameful to relate!
men have tried to teach their wives chastity after having taken their chastity
away. Marriages of that sort are quickly dissolved when lust is satiated. The
first allurement gone, the charm is lost. What shall I say, says Seneca, of
the poor men who in numbers are bribed to take the name of husband in order
to evade the laws promulgated against bachelors? How can he who is married
under such conditions be a guide to morality, teach chastity, and maintain
the authority of a husband? It is the saying of a very learned man, that chastity
must be preserved at all costs, and that when it is lost all virtue falls to
the ground. This holds the primacy of all virtues in woman. This it is that
makes up for a wife's poverty, enhances her riches, redeems her deformity,
gives grace to her beauty; it makes her act in a way worthy of her forefathers
whose blood it does not taint with bastard offspring; of her children, who
through it have no need to blush for their mother, or to be in doubt about
their father; and above all, of herself, since it defends her from external
violation. There is no greater calamity connected with captivity than to be
the victim of another's lust. The consulship sheds lustre upon men; eloquence
gives eternal renown; military glory and a triumph immortalise an obscure family.
Many are the spheres ennobled by splendid ability. The virtue of woman is,
in a special sense, purity. It was this that made [1]Lucretia the equal of
Brutus, if it did not make her his superior, since Brutus learnt from a woman
the impossibility of being a slave. It was this that made [2]Cornelia a fit
match for Gracchus, and [3]Porcia for a second Brutus. [4]Tanaquil is better
known than her husband. His name, like the names of many other kings, is lost
in the mists of antiquity. She, through a virtue rare among women, is too deeply
rooted in the hearts of all ages for her memory ever to perish. Let my married
sisters copy the examples of [5]Theano, [6]Cleobuline, Gorgente, [7]Timoclia,
the [8]Claudias and Cornelias; and when they find the Apostle conceding second
marriage to depraved women, they will read that before the light of our religion
shone upon the world wives of one husband ever held high rank among matrons,
that by their hands the sacred rites of Fortuna [9]Muliebris were performed,
that a priest or [10]Flamen twice [11]married was unknown, that the high-priests
of Athens to this day [12]emasculate themselves by drinking hemlock, and once
they have been drawn in to the pontificate, cease to be men.